with wireless ear buds available, plus smartphones I believe the future direction of Wyze hearing aids is crying for development. with the current cost of $1000 can you imagine a Wyze aid for $99.95. I am not a tech individual, 71+ but i can set up and use a Wyze camera, two actually. If you could use your magic to develop hearing aids it would be awsome
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Manufacturers and suppliers of durable medical goods have to meet a lot of government requirements. It would be difficult for a disruptive type business to get into and be profitable.
I think it’s a good idea , these are not medical devices
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Hi, @sdave320! Wyze does want to expand on personal care products. So Wyze may be interested in designing an affordable hearing aid. Thanks for the suggestion. 
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One thing about the hearing aid business, these things might be expensive and the mark up is big, but it’s a difficult business to get into.
Yes, I believe they require FDA approval.
It’s a DSP-type application and requires very powerful processors, unless you want to exclusively compete at the low-end of the market.
There is also a industry-standard requirement that suppliers offer a 6-month trial period. The supplier can’t even charge any fee for returned products. I doubt Wyze’s business model fits into that.
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convert away, the thing is I am clueless, but I can see the ability of a cell phone , and there are Bluetooth wireless ear buds, MN just went no cell while driving so I was forced to buy an ear piece, I am not concerned about the size, don’t care if it looks like a conventional ear piece plus every hearing aid wearer is always complaining about the battery life, could be charged by an usb port. Plus the ear piece styles could be designed as team logos, not everyone is so vain that design is more important than function. Anyways you guys designed a camera that i could check my house temp from a cruise in the Caribbean, so you do magic.
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Just FYI, there are already Bluetooth-capable All-in-Ear aids. They pair with your cell phones and you can take calls that way. Not saying Wyze can’t do that, just noting that there are already such mature commercial products.
You can vote for your own idea
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Cool. Even though the barrier to entry might be high on this particular idea, I like the spirit of this idea, which is to disrupt some of the industries that have a stranglehold on tech that’s marked-up to a ridiculous degree. I don’t need hearing aids, but I voted for the idea on general principle.
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Check out ZVOX.
Congress is in the process of changing the rules for hearing aids. We should see movement in 2020. Bose is working on noise canceling hearing aids to meet that timing. Hearing aid technology seems straightforward but it’s extremely sophisticated. This industry needs disrupters but the learning curve is huge.
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@Wrecks0, there is already a lot of disruption taking off in the hearing aid business. Initially it is vendors who sell identical products for less than 50% of what you find in audiologists’ offices.
But with chip costs down, with tons of similarities with regular BT earbuds, and by lower cost app development, much of the customization (that is horribly charged for today and can only be done via specialized SW), could take place in plain site on a smartphone.
I think apple is already at least taking baby steps in that direction by having a unique “MFi” certification (yes, for now only with top makers of hearing aids -and most of them located in Denmark, several brands under one holding company), so it is at least moving in the right direct.
Think defibrillators. They used to be horribly priced. Now any business can by a consumer/user friendly kit to have on premises, just in case…
Actually bought into some at one point. One of those up for funding things that actually happened. They were called Olive and while not too bad they had lots of drawbacks. Couldn’t pair for stereo no multiple devices, and had Vere short charge time. But you could tune the frequency for amplification.
Now there was also an earbud, way back when that had pass-through that could be tuned to assist hearing.
I think the thing to look for are wireless stereo bt5 earbuds with pass-through that can be tuned on multiple frequencies. Develop that and you’ve got something. Develop that for those who work for a living, (as in a doctor copay is expensive), and you’ll really have something. Bypass the Trump market and go right for those where affordable housing is a pipe dream.
Then you’ll have a product that’ll win hearts, minds and elections…
Ok I’ll get down off the soapbox…
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I have had blue tooth ear pieces for years but since I started wearing real hearing aids, I tend not to bring my ear buds anymore. It is not convenient to switch from hearing aids to ear buds in the car. That means I don’t answer my phone till I get where I’m going. It would be nice to have hearing aids that don’t cost from $2k to $7k and be able to answer cell calls with them and even listen to music via blue tooth. My ear buds sound great for stereo music but my hearing aids can’t do that even though they have blue tooth. I’m not impressed with hearing amplifiers even with digital processors. I bought several hearing amplifiers that look just like my hearing aids. They are OK for quiet rooms. I don’t mind changing the 312 batteries every week.
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I work in the pharmaceutical industry and it works kind of like this: if you want to claim that something treats a disease, then you have to have scientific proof that it actually does what you claim. That usually means a double-blind clinical trial involving thousands of patients. The cost of which averages around $100 million. This is a good thing in that it ensures patient safety, but also it is driven by our legal system and the personal injury lawyers because if you marketed a product, and someone claimed an injury, and you did not have incontrovertible scientific proof that your medicine/device works, you will be sued out of existence.
In this particular case, as long as you are marketing them for music or whatever and not to cure deafness, then you may be OK. But, as you might imagine, you may want to discuss this with one of them lawyer people.
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Wyze makes a lot of cool items at a great price. Most of these are simple gadgets, finding what’s already out there and making them a bit better and a lot cheaper.
But Wyze could make a great impact on society. In the US, there are on the order of 30 million people with hearing issues. And that’s just the US. My hearing aids cost $7,000 for the pair. I’m fortunate that I can afford them. These are super high-tech devices, but there’s no reason for the price to be $7,000, except for a $6,500 markup.
If Wyze could produce the equivalent devices and sell them for $1,000 - Wyze would be praised as heros. The technology is not that difficult. If Wyze had to raise millions of dollars in venture capital, I believe they could do it.
People have written about roadblocks, and they conclude that Wyze should give up on the idea. Nonsense. This would be a major step for Wyze to take - just as it was when they created their organization - and it would be well worth it.
Wyze, do something really significant for our population. Create the best possible hearing aids, and make them affordable. The marketplace exists and is waiting.
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I would cry for joy if you made hearing aids. I bought my son your headphones 
for Christmas and I can’t begin to tell you how much they have helped his online experience. I trust your ability to help with every day life.
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YES and AMEN. This industry needs disruption, and it would be very easy for Wyze to execute a successful and inexpensive product
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Part of this 3 part issue is cost. Health insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids.
The other two parts are quality and battery.
Now I tried the Olive and it was sort of ok at first but quickly fell short.
What I use now are the Jabra 75t because of the passthrough setting you can use them like hearing aids. Though battery drains fast in that mode. Quality wise bring 5.0 bluetooth and the hearing range customizable is among the best.
Only thing closer is I think an Australian company.
But that’s the level that has to be cleared to compete.
At least for the under 50k working class.