Oakley maker announces glasses with built-in HEARING AIDS

Eyewear brand EssilorLuxottica will begin selling eyeglasses with hearing aids built into them, the company announced this week at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.

The glasses maker, not content with vision aids, is branching into the hearing aid market with glasses that amplify sound coming from the direction that the wearer is facing.

This release comes on the heels of research showing that older adults with hearing loss have a 24 percent lower risk of early death if they wear hearing aids. 

Called Nuance Audio, the new devices will be sold in the US beginning in the Fall of 2024, representatives for EssilorLuxottica told DailyMail.com.

Then they will be in Europe around the first half of 2025. 

The company also owns glasses brands including Oakley, Ray-Ban, and Native Eyewear.

The glasses target mild to moderate hearing loss, and besides sporting slightly chunkier arms, it’s not immediately obvious that they contain audio-assistive electronics.

The new glasses can be purchased without a prescription, thanks to new laws in the US that allow hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter

More than 25 percent of Americans over 50 years old have mild to moderate hearing loss. And about 15.5 percent of Americans over age 20 have some degree of hearing loss. 

Over 25 percent of Americans 50 and older have mild to moderate hearing loss, and about 15.5 percent of Americans over 20 have some form of hearing loss

No price has been set yet, but a company representative said they will be ‘significantly cheaper’ than conventional hearing aids. 

Noise-canceling technology cuts out noise coming from behind the wearer, said Rafaello Infantino, director of integration and delivery at EssilorLuxottica.

Anyone who wears hearing aids – or who has dined out with someone who wears them – knows that this kind of noise specifically is a common complaint about the devices.

The glasses’ hearing aids can be controlled by an accompanying app. It enables wearers to adjust how loudly the hearing aids amplify sound, including the person’s own voice

Rather than fitting into the ear like conventional hearing aids, Nuance Audio’s are fully open-ear.

They amplify sound from a spot on the arm, right near the wearer’s ear.

Only the user can hear it, though. This was one of the main engineering challenges in developing the device.  

 But now that the glasses are developed, EssilorLuxottica will be able to sell them in their existing stores.

in 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration – which regulates medical devices – made it legal to sell hearing aids over-the-counter.

So rather than having to see an audiologist and get a prescription, people can just buy them like they would buy a pair of glasses frames – with or without prescription lenses.

The glasses charge wirelessly, sitting on an accompanying charging pad. A remote control or mobile app can be used to change volume and other settings, including how loudly the wearer hears their own voice.