

At Cochlear, we were really proud to be a part of this.”Ĭochlear has configured direct streaming from Fire TV to the Cochlear Nucleus 8, Nucleus 7, Nucleus Kanso 2, and Baha 6 Max sound processors.

“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. “TV is a big part of our lives we get our news and information through television, our entertainment, sports, music.” 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. That’s what empowers me and drives me-to solve these problems and make our features accessible for everyone.” There are so many people that benefit from our accessibility features. Katie commented: “Every day it’s a new challenge, and I’m learning something new. He said he would typically miss 40-50% of the words due to echoing and poor sound quality. Michael didn’t watch a lot of TV before he started using the new feature.
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“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.Īmazon 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. The hearing device acknowledges receipt of those packets of audio, and then more are sent, and so on” Peter continues. “We send the audio in little packets over to the hearing device. 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. Seeing an opportunity to solve a problem for customers, Peter’s team jumped on the chance to work with Cochlear.

“The second thing you want is the ability to hear the television, to enjoy entertainment.” 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. 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. Retailer Spotlight: How Thistle Help is expanding in East Ayrshire
