The hearing impairments affect on average 360 million individuals around the world, of which 32 million are children, according to the data of OMS, 2017. The ONU agency also mentions that the difficulty of communication, social isolation and stigma associated to hearing impairment generate a loss of approximately 573 billion dollars. To offer and appropriate education for children, it`s needed an amount of 3,6 billion dollars supplementary educational investments, and, besides that, treatments like the use of hearing aids should also be adopted in order to improve life quality for this group. The access to this equipment, especially in developing countries, is limited, mainly for financial issues. Therefore, a research group of Biomedical Signaling of University of Southampton, in England, in partnership with the research group LIDEP (Integrated Laboratory of Design and Product Engineering) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, are developing a project that aims to optimize and enlarge this access. The University of Southampton focused on improving the function at reduced cost, building an electronic system for a hearing aid, starting from a microcomputer, the Raspberry Pi. To what concerns the interface of the product, the research group LIDEP is developing the hearing aid that will contain the system.
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The Project is grounded on the social action that aims, mainly, to attend neglected demands. From and open platform, the researchers from the whole world would be able to access, modify, produce and make improvements to the product.
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The works are designed from a design methodology that happens in three main steps: Problem comprehension, development and execution. The children's public was defined as the central theme of a pilot project. This choice was made based on the identification of the considerable impact that the lack of access to the hearing aids can have on the social and educational development of the child. It seeks to understand the reality lived by the potential users and the impact of the hearing impairment, establishing then the project’s specifications, its limitation and the concept. Then, are generated alternatives that best respond to the de demands identified and specified. Therefore, the project materializes by prototyping the products at a reduced price, thanks to 3D printing.
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We generated new alternatives based on the child’s universe, in order to celebrate the difference as a force and not a weakness. This platform will make the connection between the volunteers and those who need.
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In a world where the differences are hidden in order to fit to traditional models, this product seeks to have an effect on children, for them to find in theirs difficulties the strength to live and to enjoy, in a more egalitarian way, with the same opportunities. Join us in the search for a more egalitarian society for the future.