Google teamed up with Danish hearing aid connectivity company GN Hearing and Australian hearing devicemaker Cochlear to develop technology that allows hearing devices to act like headsets to stream music, take calls and more.
The software is the first to use battery-preserving Bluetooth Low Energy technology to enable wireless streaming between Android devices and hearing aids. The new streaming capabilities will be available as a software update to the latest Android operating system for certain mobile devices, and will also require a firmware update to compatible hearing devices.
Additionally, since the new hearing aid specification is open-source, other hearing device and Android manufacturers will soon be able to apply the streaming technology to their own products.
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