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Photo of The Day - May 2023

ovbacon

ovbacon

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Feb 13, 2010
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Who is looking at who?!

_MG_3282.jpg
 
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StrollerEd

StrollerEd

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Aug 13, 2011
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Clix Pix said:
Neat photo, wonderful scenic vista! Love the framing of everything! Actually, there is more than one message in this image..... Something instantly caught my attention -- the gentleman standing there gazing out at the view is wearing something which looks very familiar to me, as I have two of them. He's using a bone-anchored sound processor (BAHA), the little brown tear-shaped thingy on his head above his right ear. The BAHA snaps into place on a titanium metal piece called the abutment; no wires, ho headbands needed. The sound is received by the external sound processor and is conducted through the titanium abutment, which in turn is connected to a tiny titanium screw implanted in the mastoid process, and the wearer's cochlea takes things from there.

Using a process similar to tooth implantations, utilizing osseointegration, back in the early 1980's Swedish researchers and physicians in Gothenburg collaborated in the development of the first dedicated bone conduction sound processor. This, specifically meant to benefit patients with conductive hearing loss, was a huge step forward from the usual process of fitting them with body aids and headbands or modified behind-the-ear standard hearing aids. Through the years the external devices have become smaller or differently shaped and they have become digital, like most hearing aids today, offering opportunities that never could have been imagined back in the old days when there were few options in hearing aids.

It's cool to see a BAHA out there in the wild, so to speak -- there aren't a lot of us who are candidates for this particular device so I don't often see someone else wearing a single or bilateral BAHA(s). Women's hair often conceals their sound processors.

Oh -- before anyone asks, this is not the same as a cochlear implant, which is meant for people with profound hearing loss caused by other types of hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is usually due to atresia/microtia, acoustic neuroma, or recurrent ear infections related to excessive sticky fluid in the ear ("glue ear"). Traditional hearing aids are not effective in these situations. Those of us who can benefit from the BAHA are very grateful for this technology.
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Thanks. I had noticed that on his head during the voyage but didn't realise that was in the photograph. However, I did not know what you have now told me.
 
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Clix Pix

Clix Pix

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StrollerEd said:
Thanks. I had noticed that on his head during the voyage but didn't realise that was in the photograph. However, I did not know what you have now told me.
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That's why I mentioned it, because I figured that some, if not everyone looking at the photo would wonder, "what's that thing on this guy's head?" I'm probably one of the few people on MR who could actually answer that unspoken question! (There is at least one other BAHA user on MR.)

Most of us who wear one or two BAHAs are quite accustomed to having people notice and sometimes they'll ask, other times they won't. I am always happy to explain and to snap one of mine off so that the person who was asking can get a better look at it and also feel how it vibrates. Then I snap it back into place on my head and continue with whatever I was doing, wherever I was going....
 
StrollerEd

StrollerEd

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2011
995
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Clix Pix said:
That's why I mentioned it, because I figured that some, if not everyone looking at the photo would wonder, "what's that thing on this guy's head?" I'm probably one of the few people on MR who could actually answer that unspoken question! (There is at least one other BAHA user on MR.)

Most of us who wear one or two BAHAs are quite accustomed to having people notice and sometimes they'll ask, other times they won't. I am always happy to explain and to snap one of mine off so that the person who was asking can get a better look at it and also feel how it vibrates. Then I snap it back into place on my head and continue with whatever I was doing, wherever I was going....
Click to expand...

" I am always happy to explain and to snap one of mine off" !!

TBH, I've never heard of a BAHA and was unsure what it was on his head - I don't think I was brave enough to ask him to do what you said ;)

Very pleased to learn that it is an effective piece of kit though :)
 
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StrollerEd

StrollerEd

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2011
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Scotland
Clix Pix said:
That's why I mentioned it, because I figured that some, if not everyone looking at the photo would wonder, "what's that thing on this guy's head?" I'm probably one of the few people on MR who could actually answer that unspoken question! (There is at least one other BAHA user on MR.)

Most of us who wear one or two BAHAs are quite accustomed to having people notice and sometimes they'll ask, other times they won't. I am always happy to explain and to snap one of mine off so that the person who was asking can get a better look at it and also feel how it vibrates. Then I snap it back into place on my head and continue with whatever I was doing, wherever I was going....
Click to expand...

Just spoke to a speech and language therapist who had worked at the Nuffield Speech & Hearing Unit in KX up until 1979 and she knew nothing of this - technology has moved on she declared.
 
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Clix Pix

Clix Pix

macrumors Core
Oct 9, 2005
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8 miles from the Apple Store at Tysons (VA)
StrollerEd said:
Just spoke to a speech and language therapist who had worked at the Nuffield Speech & Hearing Unit in KX up until 1979 and she knew nothing of this - technology has moved on she declared.
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Indeed technology has moved on in leaps and bounds since 1979! :). We all get to enjoy this in one way or another...... (Some of us in more ways than others.) From computers to digital cameras to hearing aids, BAHAs and Cochlear Implants, plus numerous other uses of the amazing technology available to us now.
 
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ovbacon

ovbacon

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AlaskaMoose said:
You are right. I reedited my previous post.

But seriously, the photo and you're saying of, "who is looking at who" is quite funny. I had a good laugh about it :)
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I am a huge art person and love going through any museum or art galleries or simply walking the streets. but I find the interaction between art and people almost more interesting than the art itself... This piece by rembrandt is so great because the subjects really appear to be looking at the spectators in wonder... and when you take the time difference into account you can really imagine that the people in the painting would be more at a loss for words than the people in it time. Art is such a beautiful thing that can bring wonder at any moment and any time.
 
A

AlaskaMoose

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Apr 26, 2008
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ovbacon said:
I am a huge art person and love going through any museum or art galleries or simply walking the streets. but I find the interaction between art and people almost more interesting than the art itself... This piece by rembrandt is so great because the subjects really appear to be looking at the spectators in wonder... and when you take the time difference into account you can really imagine that the people in the painting would be more at a loss for words than the people in it time. Art is such a beautiful thing that can bring wonder at any moment and any time.
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Agree. It looks and feels like the men in the painting are discussing something with someone or a group of people. It seems that each is looking to a person in the crowd, while another looks at someone or something past the people in front.
 
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