Amazon launches accessibility feature for people with hearing implants
Amazon and implantable hearing solutions provider Cochlear have collaborated to pioneer a solution that helps to make watching television more accessible for people with hearing implants.
For the first time, people with hearing loss can stream sound from their Amazon smart TVs directly to their Cochlear hearing implants via the open-source Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol.
The work builds on Amazon’s collaboration with the hearing aid company, Starkey, which allows customers to directly connect compatible Bluetooth hearing aids. It also represents another step to help make entertainment more accessible to people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment.
Collaborating with Cochlear is the latest way Peter Korn, director of accessibility for Amazon Devices, and Amazon’s accessibility teams have helped bring more accessible technologies to market.
They’ve also helped bring the ‘Tap to Alexa’ function, for users with speech disabilities and ‘Call RNIB helpline’ calling feature to its Alexa functions to assist people with visual impairments.
Peter said: “When we talked to customers who use hearing aids, audiologists, and other experts in the field, the majority told us that the first thing you really want if you’ve got hearing loss is to be able to hear clearly the people around you.
“The second thing you want is the ability to hear the television, to enjoy entertainment.”
Seeing an opportunity to solve a problem for customers, Peter’s team jumped on the chance to work with Cochlear. They found a way to bypass the implant’s microphones, stream audio from Fire TV directly into the implants, and prevent the audio from being degraded by noise and echoes.
“We send the audio in little packets over to the hearing device. The hearing device acknowledges receipt of those packets of audio, and then more are sent, and so on” Peter continues. “We also did the work to ensure that this protocol works over living room distances.” This means customers can sit within 10 feet or 3 meters of their TV and continue to enjoy entertainment.
Amazon software engineer Michael Forzano, along with members of AmazonPWD, Amazon’s affinity group for people with disabilities and their allies, tested the technology’s sound quality, connectivity, and other features and shared feedback with Katie Hansen, a Technical Program Manager at Amazon.
Michael didn’t watch a lot of TV before he started using the new feature. He said he would typically miss 40-50% of the words due to echoing and poor sound quality.
Katie commented: “Every day it’s a new challenge, and I’m learning something new. There are so many people that benefit from our accessibility features. That’s what empowers me and drives me—to solve these problems and make our features accessible for everyone.”
Ryan Lopez, Director of Nucleus Product Management and Marketing at Cochlear, said: “Cochlear started working on streaming audio from smartphones to hearing aids and implants in 2019 and that television was the next frontier.
“TV is a big part of our lives; we get our news and information through television, our entertainment, sports, music.”
“When we started to work with Amazon, what really came to light was their dedication to accessibility, effective communication, and collaborating on how we can combine these technologies. At Cochlear, we were really proud to be a part of this.”
Cochlear has configured direct streaming from Fire TV to the Cochlear Nucleus 8, Nucleus 7, Nucleus Kanso 2, and Baha 6 Max sound processors. With ASHA, sound processors connect directly with the Fire TV device, so customers can enjoy audio from their favorite streaming apps, use Alexa, listen to music, hear navigational sounds, and more.
ASHA-enabled Fire TV devices include: Fire TV Omni QLED Series, Fire TV Omni Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), and Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen).
Ryan stated that thousands of customers can start using this feature immediately.
