Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Peer-reviewed review

A review of assistive listening device and digital wireless technology for hearing instruments

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/kim-kim-2014/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Kim JS, Kim CH
  • Korean Journal of Audiology 18(3):105-111

Independent (Hallym University, Korea; the article gives no funding or conflict-of-interest statement)

Summary

A narrative review of assistive listening devices (wired, FM, infrared, loops, telephone, television and alerting devices) and of the digital wireless links then arriving in hearing aids.

Key findings

  • The Assistive Listening Device section, in its FM and infrared subsections, describes neckloop and silhouette inductors as couplers that convert a receiver's signal into a magnetic signal picked up by a hearing-device telecoil. This is evidence about the coupling path shared with venue systems, not a new performance measurement.
  • Describes infrared as carrying sound on invisible light to receivers used with headphones, or with a neckloop or silhouette inductor for hearing aids and implants with a telecoil.
  • States that the infrared signal cannot pass through walls and is not interfered with by other electromagnetic waves, but is vulnerable to natural light, so infrared systems cannot be used outdoors or in strongly lit rooms with many competing light sources.
  • Lists as infrared's advantages containment within a room, privacy, an unlimited number of receivers and "excellent sound quality".
  • Notes that people without a telecoil can use loop receivers with headsets for a similar benefit, without the customisation a hearing aid gives.

Limits

A short narrative review without new data; its statements on infrared cite no measurements. The journal records five days between receipt and acceptance. Written before Auracast.

Read the original

doi.org/10.7874/kja.2014.18.3.105

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Cited in

Cite this source

Kim JS, Kim CH. A review of assistive listening device and digital wireless technology for hearing instruments. Korean Journal of Audiology 18(3):105-111. 22 December 2014. https://doi.org/10.7874/kja.2014.18.3.105 (accessed 13 October 2026).

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