Venkatakrishnan was inspired by his grandfather.
AB Wire
A 16-year-old Indian American student from Louisville, Kentucky, Mukund Venkatakrishnan, has created a device to test and amplify hearing for only $60.
DuPont Manual student Mukund Venkatakrishnan worked on the device for two years and has finally completed most of the technological work. He presented the device at the Jefferson County Public Schools Idea Fest and recently won first place the Kentucky State Science and Engineering Fair, reported Wave 3 News.
“Really I started online. I looked up ‘how to program’ online and taught myself how to program,” he said.
The device is built to first; test hearing by playing several different sounds at seven different frequencies through headphones. It then programs itself to be a hearing aid, amplifying volume based on the test results.
CNN Money reported in its current form, the device is about two inches and looks like a computer processor. Venkatakrishnan is planning to bring it down to about one inch and encase the operating system. He envisions the device, which has a standard headphone port, fitting into someone’s pocket.
“It eliminates the need for a doctor altogether,” Mukund was quoted as saying. “It’s really, in essence, just amplifiers, just increase the volume based on how much hearing loss you have and it’s crazy that they cost $1,500 each, when you can do it for $60.”
Mukund said the processor, which is responsible for amplifying volume by increasing the volume of an incoming signal, was the most expensive part – about $45. Other parts, added up to about $15.
He spent hours a day working at FirstBuild, near the University of Louisville campus. Even when the building was closing, Mukund would continue working into the night, weekdays and weekends, whatever it took to complete the device.
“I’m kinda surprised it turned out OK,” Mukund said reported Wave. “It’s hard to like, see something like this working. I wanted to quit a lot of times in the middle. Everything was going wrong all the time. You never knew if something was going to work or not.”
But he didn’t quit. And that’s because his motivation goes deeper his natural drive and persistence. He visited his grandfather two years ago in India and learned he was suffering from hearing loss.
“The summer after my freshman year, I went to India and I stayed with my grandparents. My grandfather has had hearing loss for a little while. It was my job to set up all the appointments. The process took forever to find an audiologist, then once we got there they ripped us off and I kinda looked into the problem more and that’s kinda where I got into it,” he said.
CNNMoney reported Venkatakrishnan said they spent about $400 or $500 on doctor’s appointments and about $1,900 on the hearing aid itself. He realized that hearing is a luxury many people in developing countries can’t afford.
“In India, the median household income is $616 a year,” Venkatakrishnan said. “If someone in India saves all year without spending a penny, they still can’t afford a hearing aid.”
Mukund’s goal is to distribute the device to people with hearing loss who can’t afford a $1,000 hearing aid. He said his grandfather knows about his invention and is excited to try it out, reported Wave.
While the technological part of the device – which has yet to be named – is complete, Mukund is working to make it smaller and more user friendly. He proposes he will have the size smaller in just one week.
“When you finally get that solution to a problem, it’s the best feeling in the world,” Mukund said. “When you finally get that breakthrough and that moment of ‘ah ha’ or ‘eureka,’ I love that feeling, it’s kinda what kept me going. That and my grandfather, you know keeping him in my head. There are people like him who wouldn’t be able to afford this device. That’s why I’m working on this project.”
Venkatakrishnan spent two years teaching himself to code, building the audio program and developing the device. He made it completely on his own but received guidance from engineers, like his father, and audiologists.
Working with the doctors, he conducted tests on patients with hearing loss to make sure his device was accurate.
Various foundations are reaching out to Mukund to help mass produce and distribute the hearing aid. Mukund will visit his grandfather in Bangalore, India this summer and deliver the hearing aid, said the Wave report.
CNN Money reported he’s adamant that the audio software remain open source so other developers can modify and tweak it. And he’s hoping an organization that already has connections in developing countries will want to mass produce and distribute the device.
“I’ve just started talking to someone from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” Venkatakrishnan said.
His device could have broad appeal. There are roughly 360 million people around the world who suffer from hearing loss. And in the U.S., only about 2% – 3% of people with mild loss use a hearing aid. (His device is targeted to people with mild to moderate hearing loss.)
Medicare doesn’t cover hearing aids and hearing aids cannot be sold over the counter in the U.S.
9 Comments
I need for my country peoples and my young brother daughters.. Please send for us. I m from india. Contact me after complition of all formalties.. I m waiting for positive reply to my id
sarvankt@yahoo.com
Amazing invention by Mukund Venkata Krishnaiah, we really appreciate it.I want to purchase it for my father who is 76yrs, please let us know if this is available for Sale.
Thanks
Naga
Please let me know when and where mukund is going to distribute this hearing aid in Bangalore. I need it for my father and please let me know at svm1625@gmail.com
Thanks
We want to purchase hearing aid kit invented by mugunth.where do we purchase it?To whom we contact.please guide us
It will be Indians who will dominate in many fields
Hello! I am an 82 years old men, having hearing and hearing-Aid problems for decades.
I have spent thousands of dollars already, but still no help for my hearing.
My most problem is the discrimination of speeches from men,women and children.
I think that Mukund got the perfect idea already, I do have some additional idea that he may like, that has something to do with the “speed” of the sound coming with speeches.
I am not an electronic person but he is and may like to hear this, may not. In any case I really will appreciate if you (your company etc.) could somehow help me to contact him. Or of course he can contact me on my e-mail.
This is STRICTLY on hearing help and absolutely nothing to do with any business related communication.
Please, Please help. I will be very thankfull, just like Mukund’s Grandpa in India.
Thank you very much and I trust that someone may contact me back.
Bela Reiner, Beaverton, Oregon.
Amazing! He is going places obviously but i wonder what his plans are for this device? Hmm… My uncle was an inventor but he sold ALL of his inventions and got no credit of course.. He doesn’t care but it bothers me anyway :/ meep anyways he’s awesome!
Is the hearing test and aid for sale to the public yet?
Is the hearing test and a single for sale yet?