MP3 Player for Cochlear Implants

A woman with a cochlear implant is working with Samsung to create a wireless MP3 system for the deaf. I have Cochlear’s Freedom and it comes with an attachment to attach the implant to a player or the computer for listening to music. But I don’t use it because it drove me nuts having the cord pulling and besides, headphones work fine.
I have two headphones: one wireless and one wired. I wear the wireless ones upside down because they fit better that way. My regular headphones look like the wireless ones minus the rubber piece that holds the headphones in place on the ears. The piece is useless to me.
I can’t imagine an MP3 player for the deaf working any better than any other MP3 player. Maybe it will work better for those who can talk on the phone. For me, I can’t tell the difference. Heck, I can’t tell the bad singers from the normal singers on American Idol.

4 comments

Skip to comment form

    • BEG on January 22, 2007 at 11:00 am

    Any solution, I think, needs to incorporate bluetooth or something wireless. That’s what I’m aiming for (with the DAI port on digital HA in my case). Otherwise as you note, all the wires are a PITA… But the beauty of the bluetooth solution is that there’s a ton of music/audio broadcasts already available so that end’s covered, if the CI or HA can just get a BT receiver…

    • Meryl on January 22, 2007 at 11:04 am

    The headphones I have use Bluetooth — but you’re right… any solution specifically for implants should be Bluetooth-based or wireless. It’d be nice not to have to take out the implant to remove the cover and plug something in. I always worried about losing the mini piece (although that’s no longer an issue with the new Freedom).

    • IamMine on January 22, 2007 at 11:13 am

    It’s funny – I love gadgets, but I could never figure out why I needed an extra gadget to listen to music on my laptop – I just use regular headphone to listen to music with my 3G. Perhaps I really have no clue on how to figure out to use that feature, just to see how it works.
    I didn’t upgrade to Freedom, though – denied by the insurance (MCARE, soon to be BlueCross – another sellout, I guess). Pfft.
    However, I think my laptop I purchased last year does have Bluetooth feature – but I think it requires buying a bluetooth wireless headphone.
    I just don’t see how it would work better than a regular headphone I have right now plugged in.
    I also didn’t really see any difference when I tried to plug it in with my 3G to the laptop.
    Like BEG said, PITA!!!
    Some folks don’t mind, though, and reported it sounded better.
    I dunno. *shrugs*
    Though, I’d like to try wireless headphone so I could get off my ass once in a while! 😀
    But then again, I don’t mind listening to my sons blasting their music on drums and guitar.
    Sometimes I prefer the vibrations! It’s just as good!!
    You could say I’m cheap.

    • Margo on June 8, 2007 at 12:16 pm

    Hi-I’m a longtime ci user(17 years) and currently use Cochlear’s Freedom speech processor. The idea of a wireless mp3 player intrigues me. I have a SamsungT9 mp3 player that I just love and my favorite way to connect it is with the NoiZFree induction silhouette. I also use NoiZFree cellphone induction adapter with my cellphone when I’m in a noisy environment. With my cochlear implant, I either choose a program with a mixed telecoil if I want to hear some environmental sound or a program that has 100% telecoil when I want to hear through the NoiZfree only, and plug the NoizFree into either the mp3 player or cellphone and the silhouette fits comfortably on my small ear, and I’m good to go. Another option to listen to music other than headphones and way more comfortable to wear!

Comments have been disabled.