Peter Alexander Lee
Carmel, CA
Age 17
Gabe Klapman
Santa Cruz, CA
Age 18
Gabe and Peter have two hearing impaired friends who struggle even with hearing aids due to too much ambient sound. Gabe and Peter have designed a new directional hearing aid with a two-directional array of 8 to 18 microphones spaced appropriately to amplify the sounds of all voice frequencies coming from directly in front of the wearer. The sound signals are then digitally processed in a custom chip to diminish the sounds from other directions. The amplified output is then connected to a conventional hearing aid transducer. This new technology is inexpensive and can be built into personal accessories such as hats and briefcases.