A runner-up at Ireland’s 2009 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition has evolved into a web-based company that is a corporate exhibitor at this year’s show. The Sound of Silence project, developed by students and a physics professor at Ursuline College Sligo, investigated a therapy for people suffering from temporary tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. After the project won the Health Research Board’s prize for innovation, the four-person team developed the technology into the company Restored Hearing (www.restoredhearing.ie), which was launched in August 2009.
Temporary tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud environments, such as listening to loud music or operating loud machinery. This noise can damage the sound receptor cells in the cochlea — the part of the ear that converts wave-vibrations into electric signals before sending these signals to the brain. When these receptor cells, or tiny hairs, are bent during exposure to loud noise, they continue to send signals to the brain even after exposure to the noise has ceased.
Restored Hearing offers web-based therapy based on sound and wave theory, using a low hum to stimulate the cochlear hairs of the ear that may have been damaged. The therapy helps the hairs return to an upright position. The online therapy, which takes one minute, simply requires a broadband connection and a pair of external earphones. Trials have shown a 99% success rate, and the company has received sales and interest in the U.K., Europe, and North America. Restored Hearing now is a client company of NovaUCD, the TTO of University College Dublin, and next plans to investigate the therapy’s effect on permanent tinnitus.
Source: The Irish Times and PRLog