Dilemma

A human being is born with five core senses, yet for 500 million people, the ability to hear properly is not available to them. For 360 million, that inaptitude is less a hindrance than a full-on disability. Hearing loss does not discriminate against any one group of people—regardless of race, gender, or nationality, it can affect anyone. Today’s hearing aids are functional, but with a limited target audience—practical and available only to those with access to money and electricity.

Imagine if we could change that...

Scientists have developed thermoelectric generators that convert body heat into energy and are compatible with wearable devices.

The building blocks are there, now it's just  matter of putting the puzzle pieces together...

By connecting this device with a rechargeable battery, the heat from the human body will recharge the battery, ensuring that continually purchasing batteries and plugging hearing aids in to charge will soon become obsolete practices. The result of this is a new product, known as the Heat Utilizing Hearing Aids.

What does this mean for you, the consumer? What does this mean for the world?

This function of the hearing aid will be an added convenience to current wearers, but it will also be able to help correct the disabilities in a whole new range of people. This will reach those that reside in poor or developing countries, those who don’t possess the wealth to supply a constant stream of batteries, or lack access to the electricity that would otherwise recharge the devices. By utilizing current technologies, by piecing together the resources available, proper hearing will become a viable option for those that could never even have dreamed of it before.

Great technological advances have made this product, the Heat Utilizing Hearing Aids, possible, but this is just the beginning. The human body is an amazing thing; why limit ourselves by what money can buy and tread only on the pathways that traditional, plug-and-wire electricity illuminates? Body heat is plentiful, free, and available to everyone. It may not be able to charge your car, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a whole host of other compatible options out there, devices that can help people, all people. The heat generated by the human body keeps it alive, enables us to do incredible things, and technology has only ever served to extend our reach; by putting these two factors together, we are opening countless new doors that are accessible to any individual person existing on this planet.