Contemporary technology has stepped up to meet the challenge of significant hearing loss head-on with some amazing tools. Today, there are many options for augmenting residual hearing. The Phonak ComPilot is of note for its performance, but also in that it is an example of "wearable" technology.
The ComPilot is a tiny listening device that serves as a direct link between your ears and your phone, your portable book player or other audio device, your computer, your TV, and other devices. It is a necklace of sorts, designed to work with a variety of Phonak hearing aids. When it is around your neck, all manner of sound can be delivered directly into your ears.
When you don't want to hear the audio generated by any device, but only to hear the sounds in your environment, the ComPilot can serve as a remote control for your hearing aids.
Description
The ComPilot is a silver and black rectangle, roughly 2 inches by 2.5 inches, with a rounded top and a neck loop that acts as an antenna attached to holes on either side on the top edge. Sound streaming is only possible when the ComPilot is worn around the neck.
On the front face are a microphone grill and a large center button, called Main. There is a slider switch on one side for powering on and off and two very tactile buttons on the bottom of the face for volume adjustment. On the left side are two more buttons, Connect and Home, and on the bottom edge are three connectors: a mini-USB for charging the unit, a port for connecting FM devices, and a 3.5mm jack for connecting audio devices via audio cable.
The ComPilot package includes the unit, the neck loop antenna, an audio cable for connecting to audio devices, a mini USB cable, and an AC adapter.
Other accessories and components for connecting are also available, but let's first talk about what the ComPilot can do in its basic form.
Your Personal Audio Smorgasbord
You can connect up to eight devices to the ComPilot and cycle from one to the next with a press of the Main button. You can mix and match devices as well as the types of connectivity used to stream the sound they produce.
Examples of devices are phones, Bluetooth devices, FM devices, or audio devices connected via cable to the 3.5mm jack. In other words, you can use the ComPilot to listen to your phone, radio, TV, Victor Stream, Book Sense, computer, or any other audio generating device that comes to mind.
With the audio cable plugged into both the ComPilot and another audio device, such as your computer or an MP3 player, you can eliminate the need for headphones. Sound from the source device is channeled directly into your hearing aids and not heard by anyone else in your environment.
Phone Calls
Once paired via Bluetooth with your iPhone or other smart phone, the ComPilot allows you to channel phone calls directly into your hearing aids. When a call comes in, you will hear the name or number of the caller directly through both hearing aids. Press the Main button on the front of the device to answer. If you wear two hearing aids, the caller's voice is heard in both ears. Your own voice is picked up by the ComPilot's microphone. You can end the call from the ComPilot by pressing the Main button. A few other phone functions can be managed directly with the ComPilot itself, such as switching to another phone, muting your end of the call temporarily, or accessing voice dialing. Personally, I found it easier to control such functions on the phone itself.
The quality of sound during phone calls is such a personal matter that I offer my opinion with some reluctance. At my end, the incoming sound was sometimes clear and sometimes a bit blurred. Similarly, some people tell me that I sound very clear when using the ComPilot to speak, while others have commented that it produces a fuzzy sound quality and, while tolerable, it's not as comfortable to listen to as when I am speaking into the phone directly.
While the sound clarity of phone conversations seems to vary, the quality of other audio content is consistently excellent.
If you have audio content on your phone such as audio books or music, sound can be streamed via the ComPilot, delivering the sound directly into your ears without wires or carrying the phone in your hand. As with all Bluetooth connections, range is up to about 30 feet.
FM
If a small FM receiver is plugged into the FM port at the bottom of the unit, you can pair the ComPilot with an FM device for clear sound over a greater distance. Handing off your FM device to the lecturer in a large auditorium, for example, you can sit wherever you please and hear the speaker's voice loud and clear via the FM connection on your ComPilot.
Remote Control
In order for any streamed sound—whether via Bluetooth, FM, or audio cable—to be channeled to your hearing aids, the ComPilot must be worn around the neck. When not in use for phone calls or listening to content from other devices, however, the ComPilot can be detached from the neck loop and held in the hand to serve as a remote control for your hearing aids.
When using the ComPilot as a remote control, you can increase or decrease volume and cycle among the various programs available on your hearing aids. An audiologist must configure both the hearing aid programs and the ComPilot remote control function.
Accessibility
The ComPilot was not designed with people with visual impairments in mind, but it is accessible. All buttons are easily identified by touch. While there are a plethora of visual indicators to determine what's going on, the device also has audio beeps and speech alerts. It can announce when audio or Bluetooth is connected, announce an incoming call, announce when a Bluetooth device has been paired, and so on.
Although a version of the print manual is available online, it uses images to refer to the buttons on the device, rendering this vital information inaccessible to someone using a screen reader.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to guess which combination of keys to press to begin Bluetooth pairing until I finally asked a friend to look at the picture for me!
Once you have learned the various key sequences, the device is completely accessible to a person who is blind or has low vision. Because the ComPilot can pair with up to eight devices, you can easily switch from an audio cable connected to your computer to the phone when a call comes in, to another phone, a Bluetooth capable book player, your TV, and FM device and so on with ease.
More importantly, the streamed sound of your favorite music, book, news, or drama is crystal clear and delivered directly to your ears.
Product Information
The ComPilot is intended for use with Phonak hearing aids.
For more information about the ComPilot and accessories, visit the Phonak website.
Product: ComPilot
Price: approximately $350
Manufacturer: Phonak, info@phonak.com
Available from: your hearing care specialist or online from various sources, including Amazon.
