Debut of first IoT-connected hearing aid
The first connected hearing aid for the internet of things (IoT) has been developed by Danish company, Oticon. The fully-functioning hearing aid, called Opn, is compatible with If This Then That (IFTTT) protocols, enabling it to connect with other IoT devices including smoke alarms, door bells, and baby monitors, opening up "a new world of sound" for users.

The designer, Oticon says it will allow the hearing aid to communicate directly with connected devices such as door bells, smoke detectors and baby alarms.

Called Opn, the hearing aid is compatible with the web-based service IFTTT (If This Then That) for communicating with other IoT devices.





Søren Nielsen, president of Oticon, writes:





“The potential of IoT is vast, but on a consumer level we’ve largely seen devices that focus on convenience. With Opn, the internet of things starts to matter – you could say that this will change people’s lives.”

This is also a fully functioning hearing aid which incorporates audio processing to handle noisy environments with multiple speakers. The company claims that this will allow it to locate speech from any direction, with background noise de-emphasised for optimum clarity.

Nielsen adds: