I was recently interviewed by Gus Mueller for his popular "20Q" series on AudiologyOnline. For my 20Q, I focused on how I think all ear-worn devices will be impacted by the "hearables" computerization that's underway and only picking up more steam. I've been so focused on podcasting the past few years, that I've not written… Continue reading My AudiologyOnline 20Q – Hearing Aids, Hearables and the Future of Hearing Technology
Category: Essays
Future Ear Turns Two (Future Ear Daily Update 11-12-19)
Happy (belated) birthday, Future Ear! What began as a site for long-form essays, has since morphed into a home for my daily update. To commemorate two years, here are five takeaways from what I've learned about blogging across the first 150 posts. Just Start When I started this blog, I thought I only had a… Continue reading Future Ear Turns Two (Future Ear Daily Update 11-12-19)
Alexa + Hearing Aids (Future Ear Daily Update 11-8-19)
One of the core themes of Future Ear has revolved around the idea of an impending marriage between voice assistants and hearing aids (and all hearables). This marriage of the two technologies became feasible five years ago with the introduction of Bluetooth hearing aids, enabling the ability to wirelessly tether one's ears to the internet.… Continue reading Alexa + Hearing Aids (Future Ear Daily Update 11-8-19)
The Many Hearable Form Factors (Future Ear Daily Update 10-9-19)
One of the reoccurring thoughts that's been running through my head these past few years is that we'll eventually have a wide variety of form factors when it comes to hearables. I believe there will be a large range of hearables-based applications spanning consumer, business, medical and industrial-focused verticals, and some of those applications might… Continue reading The Many Hearable Form Factors (Future Ear Daily Update 10-9-19)
The Alexa Conference 2019: From Phase One to Phase Two
A Meeting of the Minds Last week, I made my annual trek to Chatanooga, Tennessee to gather with a wide variety of Voice technology enthusiasts at the Alexa Conference. Along with the seismic growth of smart speakers and voice assistant adoption, the attendees grew quite dramatically too, as we went from roughly 200 people last… Continue reading The Alexa Conference 2019: From Phase One to Phase Two
Jobs-to-be-Done and the Golden Circle
It's about the Job, not the Product There are two concepts that I've been thinking about lately to apply back to FuturEar. The first is the framework known as "Jobs-to-be-Done." I've touched on it briefly in previous posts in regards to how it applies to voice technology and the mobile app economy, but it's a… Continue reading Jobs-to-be-Done and the Golden Circle
Capping Off Year One with my AudiologyOnline Webinar
A Year's Work Condensed into One Hour Last week, I presented a webinar through the continuing education website, AudiologyOnline, for a number of audiologists around the country. The same week the year prior, I launched this blog. So, for me, the webinar was basically a culmination of the past year's blog posts, tweets and videos… Continue reading Capping Off Year One with my AudiologyOnline Webinar
Hearing Aid Use Cases are Beginning to Grow
The Next Frontier In my first post back in 2017, I wrote that the inspiration for creating this blog was to provide an ongoing account of what happens after we connect our ears to the internet (via our smartphones). What new applications and functionality might emerge when an audio device serves as an… Continue reading Hearing Aid Use Cases are Beginning to Grow
10 Years after the App Store, what’s Next?
What's Next? As we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the App store this week, it seems only natural that we begin wondering what the next 10 years will look like. What modalities, devices, interfaces and platforms will rise to the top of our collective preferences? There's clearly an abundance of buzzwords that are thrown… Continue reading 10 Years after the App Store, what’s Next?
Bringing Biometric Sensors to our Ears
Valencell + Sonion News broke last week that Sonion, a leading components manufacturer for ear-worn devices, had led a $10.5 million Series E round of investment into Valencell, a pioneer in the biometric sensor manufacturing industry. In exchange for its investment into Valencell, Sonion now has exclusivity on Valencell's bio-sensor technology for the ear-level… Continue reading Bringing Biometric Sensors to our Ears