The practical possiblility of augmented reality contact lenses. Contact lenses that reshape the eye. Bone-anchored hearing aids. Voice box transplant plans.
posted by StrikeTheViol on Sep 7, 2009 - 22 comments

Maybe I'm crazy, but this seems to be a very cool effort by a sign language interpreter to include the hearing-impaired in the Gnarls Barkley lyrics experience. [more inside]
posted by prefpara on Feb 23, 2009 - 42 comments

That Buzzing Sound: The mystery of tinnitus.
posted by homunculus on Feb 10, 2009 - 76 comments

What would you do if you only had a month left to hear? With a disease that put tumors on her brain stem, Jessica Stone was given a month to savor the sounds in her world before surgery took away her hearing for good. Her story ran on Good Morning America. [more inside]
posted by sjuhawk31 on Aug 27, 2008 - 23 comments

New Scientist has a feature on 5 great auditory illusions. (via Mind Hacks)
posted by Lezzles on Feb 21, 2008 - 49 comments

Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World. From the main page, click on the various articles to access a larger left-side menu, with articles including Illusions Reveal The Brain's Assumptions, A Hot Spot in the Brain's Motion Pathway, The Value of Having Two Ears, The Memory of Smells and much more.
posted by amyms on Dec 5, 2007 - 2 comments

See For Yourself - Purves Lab's optical illusions web page with empirical explanations of familiar and unfamiliar illusions.
posted by nthdegx on Nov 16, 2007 - 6 comments

"I do not recall" --meet Lurita Doan, Administrator of the GSA (Our mission is to help other agencies better serve the public by meeting – at best value – their needs for products and services, and to simplify citizen access to government information and services.), and hear about the powerpoint presentation from Rove's office all about electing Republicans in 08 and how her agency should help. Her office supplied it to Congress--but it was just a (GOP) "team-building exercise" and "brown-bag lunch". (YouTube) Read up on the Hatch Act too.
posted by amberglow on Mar 28, 2007 - 54 comments

DEAF...i'm deaf, by kunosher, and just one of a growing group of videos on youtube created by the signing deaf. Many more here--from the personal to the political to videoblogs to deaf poetry jams to the news .
posted by amberglow on Dec 20, 2006 - 29 comments

Hearing Aid waiting list The BBC reports that in some British NHS hospitals the waiting list time for a digital hearing aid is 200 weeks (in others it is 2 weeks...) and perhaps 4m people could benefit from an aid, but don't have one. Not an NHS bashing - but what would the situation be elsewhere? Presumably in some countries - the US? - the waiting list for a digital hearing aid would be infinite, eg if you don't have the money you'll not get one? Does Medicare/Aid cover this over 65? What about Canada?
posted by A189Nut on Oct 16, 2006 - 48 comments

"MP3 players should carry warnings that users risk damage to their hearing by having the volume too high, a deafness charity says." Also, for prescription glasses: "If you use these glasses to see things that are disturbing, you could become disturbed." Is this not the height of PC, Western stupidity?
posted by JPowers on Sep 5, 2006 - 74 comments

The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5FM in Washington DC is interviewing the outgoing and incoming presidents of Gallaudet University (previously) today. Gallaudet is a liberal arts college and graduate school for the deaf. Deaf and hearing-impaired persons will be able to fully participate in the conversation and 'listen' to the radio show live as the station is providing real-time captioning on-line and via HD-radio.
posted by pithy comment on Aug 9, 2006 - 4 comments

Concealed hearing devices of the 19th and 20th centuries. Great images in this delightful exhibit of wacky yet charming devices like auricle headphones, dentaphones, concealed beard receptors, barrettes, jewelry, hats, and acoustic chairs.
posted by madamjujujive on Oct 15, 2005 - 20 comments

Genetics of the white cat is a fascinating subject.
posted by debralee on Apr 19, 2005 - 12 comments

Painkillers destroy hearing - Looks like America's fascination with Vicodin, Oxycotin, and other hardcore painkillers has a lasting effect other than addiction. Studies are showing that "rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drugs". This is serious enough for Vicodin's manufacturer to add a "warning about the potential for hearing loss to the drug's label."

Is Rush Limbaugh's sudden deafness and recent involvement in a painkiller drug investigation simply a coincidence?
posted by Argyle on Oct 3, 2003 - 38 comments

Limbaugh gets hearing back. Love him or hate him, it is great to know that technology has enabled someone to get some hearing back. However, to implant the device requires doctors to "destory the inner ear". But it seems to have worked.
posted by ericdano on Jan 21, 2002 - 44 comments

Learn sign language. Or, knowing you - just pretend it's porn.
posted by geronimo_rex on Jun 22, 2001 - 12 comments

'Necklace' designed to aid those with profound hearing loss. Almost totally deaf and reliant on lip reading since her 20s, Sherry Cramer couldn't believe her ears in 1994 when she first wore the microphone array necklace that electrical engineering Professor Bernard Widrow and his students had designed. Listening to a CD, she could hear every note of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto as the necklace received and transmitted sound in magnetic form to her behind-the-ear hearing aid.
posted by RylandDotNet on Jun 13, 2001 - 8 comments

Say what?
I'm sorry, could you please repeat that, I couldn't hear...
posted by quonsar on Apr 24, 2001 - 14 comments

And thanks to all the fish? British researchers say fans of loud music may be responding to a 'pleasure-inducing hearing mechanism' passed down through evolution from fish to humans. Well, slap me with a large trout!
posted by prolific on Feb 17, 2000 - 4 comments