What is Bone Conduction Technology and how does it work?

 Before getting into any further details on this topic, let me state an interesting fact related to Bone Conduction Technology.

Did you know that the famous 18^th– century musician Ludwig Van Beethoven used Bone Conduction Technology to hear his musical compositions after he lost his ability to hear? It is widely believed that Beethoven used a sleek tuning fork to hear his music by attaching one end of the tuning fork to his piano and clenching the other end in his teeth.

Today through several scientific simulation processes and improvisations upon earlier inventions working on BCT, it is well known that we can hear sounds not only through our eardrums but also through our bones.

Normal Hearing Process

In the normal hearing process, the sound waves travel through the air and reach our eardrums. The eardrums convert the sound waves in the air into different kind of vibration which is then sent to the cochlea, a part of the inner ear. The cochlea is connected to the audio sensory nerves from where the sound waves are sent directly to the brain.

And this is how our normal hearing process works.

Bone Conduction Hearing Process (Normalize)
Bone Conduction is a technology that works on transmitting the sounds through bone vibration directly to the cochlea bypassing the outer and middle ear. This process is similar to transmitting sound through any solid medium. This makes this technology useful for people with conductive or mixed hearing loss.

History of Bone Conduction Technology

The first time Bone conduction technology ever came into use was in the 15th Century, when Italian physician Girolamo Cardano made the first Bone Conduction hearing aids. He used the same technique as Beethoven used later in the 18th century, of clenching a tuning fork in the teeth and attaching its other end to a musical instrument. Later this device was improvised by a French physician Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard in the 1820s. He attached the other end of the device to the mouth of another speaker. This invention came to be known as Rod of Itard.

One of the most revolutionary eras in the field of bone conduction technology was the 1970s when a team of doctors in Sweden led by Anders Tjellstrom, decided to surgically attach a vibration plate onto the mastoid bone adjoint to a screw. The screw was attached to a processor, which converted the sound waves into vibrations that were conducted directly to the inner ear. This first-of-its-kind Bone Conduction Hearing Aids came to be known as the Bone Anchored Hearing Aids popularly known as BAHA. Since then thousands of people suffering from hearing loss have been provided with BAHA implants.

Developments in Bone Conduction Technology and its Applications

Today with the help of multifaceted developments in the field of Bone Conduction Technology, there are some hearing aids available in the market that can be used by people with hearing loss even without any surgical procedures. In these hearing aid devices, the sound processing unit is either attached to the hearing aid itself or is provided in form of wrist bands.

Moreover, several developments are taking place which not only target to provide a hearing solution to people with hearing loss but also innovate and manufacture devices that prevent hearing loss.

Apart from these developments and applications, bone conduction technology has given significant contributions in the field of the military. The soldiers on the battlefield have used bone conduction open ear audio devices for a long time for internal communication and to remain aware of the situation on the field.

Today bone conduction audio devices are becoming a widespread phenomenon as a preventive audio device and are being rapidly adopted by individuals who are aware of the detrimental effects of regular headphones. They are also being adopted by fitness enthusiasts who like to take part in outdoor such as marathons and cycling.

Apart from this, the bone conduction device holds a huge potential for call centers, work-from-home individuals, and senior corporate officials who are always on calls or online meetings.