Micro-Tech Announces Touchless Telecoil

May 2001

Micro-Tech recently announced the development of touchless telecoil technology. This new capability automatically activates the telecoil of a hearing aid when the user holds the receiver to her ear. This might be a very nice feature for people who have trouble switching their aids to telecoil and back. The Touchless Telecoil is currently available in two of Micro-Tech's hearing aids.

I'm guessing that the technology includes a sensor that detects the presence of a magnetic field and activates the telecoil when the sensor is triggered. This leads to questions about whether the telecoil will be activated at other times when it is desired (like when using a loop system) and not at other times when it is not desired (in the presence of other magnetic fields). Hopefully there is a manual override for those situations when the automatic system doesn't work properly.