Is there or will be support bluetooth for hearing aids?

asked 2018-10-17 21:31:59 +0200

Chris_ gravatar image

updated 2019-02-12 21:17:14 +0200

Hi,

On the Android, something is going on in this direction. And for ios it has been working for some time, at least on oticon hearing aids.

https://source.android.com/devices/bluetooth/asha

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-add-hearing-aid-streaming-support-future-android/

https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-2-bluetooth-hearing-aids-android-p/

https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-2-xl/help/hearing-aid-support-android-p-seeking-t3813495

Sorry for my English.

Regards

Ps. another cool idea https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/04/google-intros-a-pair-of-android-accessibility-features-for-people-with-hearing-loss/

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Comments

2

currently (as of Sailfish 2.2.1) I see 2 barriers :

  • currently, there's no gigh level support for BLE which is the low power variant of Bluetooth currently used in those aids (a distant cousing of ZigBee). The drivers do exist, there are low-level libraries and command-line tools. But there's no high-level GUI : the bluetooth settings isn't designed to pair BLE devices, and the pulseaudio routing is only designed for classical Bluetooth. Maybe this could change in the future with Sailfish 3. Or people in the community could tackle the problem (specially the pulseaudio part, as it is an audio routing service that is currently used by nearly every linux solution out there).

  • for some reasons, instead of going for an open-source format (such as the high quality OPUS) which is presently used by nearly anything on the internet, or the insanely-low bitrate Codec2 design by HAM radio people), according to your links Google is using the closed source and patented (and much crappier in ABX tests) G.722 codec. That means that official Jolla devs could manage something commercial that they can release for a fee to cover the licensing costs (like other commercial components in Sailfish X paid installation image). But it would be hard for the community to do development legally (which was the entire reason behind the emergence of opensource codecs)

DrYak ( 2018-10-23 20:03:42 +0200 )edit

My hearing aids work fine with app Smart Remote, but that's on Android, can't say if it's working on other platforms.

aQUICK1 ( 2018-10-23 23:13:17 +0200 )edit

update:

it seems that the G.722 patents have expired so it should be possible for comunity to hack supportr for hearing aid too, without fear of licensing problems.

DrYak ( 2018-10-23 23:18:36 +0200 )edit

It's better. The question is whether the jolla community will undertake this task?

I do not use sailfish yet, but I am planning to buy xperia xa2 and I hope someday it will be easier for the hearing impaired.

Chris_ ( 2018-10-24 21:31:20 +0200 )edit

Well, with the exception of the GUI for pairing which will run on silicat and is Sailfish specific, the rest (basically wiring into pulseaudio) is purely on the GNU/Linux layer and is common to other smartphone as Purism's Librem, or even standard Linux desktop on laptop.

The community is vast thus quite vast and chance are high that something will come up.

DrYak ( 2018-10-24 22:26:43 +0200 )edit