If there is a problem, this is an opportunity for technological innovations. Technology has solved unbelievable problems so far. For example, although people in the past could imagine that they would land on the Moon and walk on its surface, they did not know how they could do. There were many problems to be solved. However, our modern technology could solve them, and accomplish the feat. This is how our technology has been developed.
When I heard a presentation on “Hearing Aid” by Mr. Seno at the CSIJ the other day, I learned that there are problems that cannot be solely solved by engineering. According to the presentation, with the help of hearing aids, people with moderate hardness of hearing can make conversations without severe difficulties. Actually, since my grandmother has weak hearing, I feel difficulty to communicate with her unless she wears a hearing aid. However, if she wears it, she can hear me if I speak loud. In this sense, a hearing aid can partly solve the problem.
However, Mr. Seno mentioned that it was difficult for people with innate hardness of hearing to communicate with people with verbal language even if they wear a high quality hearing aid, if they became matured. People with innate hardness of hearing usually understand human voice as just vibration even if they can get to hear human voice with the aid of wearing a hearing aid. Their brain is not trained to interpret the meaning of human voice. If people with innate hardness of hearing receive cochlear implant at around 1 and half years old, they gain a chance to hear and interpret human voice.
There are many people who have not received the cochlear implant at their early age. They communicate with people in sign language. So far, there seems to be no such technology that can solve this issue. Mr. Seno provided me with the opportunity to acknowledge the limitation of our technology.
This essay will be published on the homepage of CSIJ, probably after it is translated into Japanese.
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