Hearing aids are advertised as being invisible.

But the problems don't stop there. There's the social stigma that people with hearing loss have to deal with.

Which seems strange because vision loss is perfectly acceptable.

And so are spectacles

Baldness and the gradual loss of hearing with age are seen differently.

The problem extends to costs as well. Good hearing aids cost as much as a top flagship mobile phone.

And that puts them out of reach of most of the world's population.

Saad Bhamla from Georgia Tech set out to solve the cost issue.

He calls it curiosity-driven research using frugal science

Designed with existing off the shelf components, the cost of manufacturing it at scale would be less than $1!

It complies with 5 out of the 6 recommendation of WHO for hearing aids.

But it cannot be individually tuned for patients. Once size fits all.

Meeting the strict requirements of 'hearing aids' standards across countries and being able to sell without a doctor's prescription are the problems they are still trying to solve.

It won't win any design awards. That's for sure. 

But if it cures embarrassment, the payoffs are huge. It's about time we changed.

What's your take?

How much of your life should you outsource?

The lines keep extending further and further away.

Our parents had at least a nodding understanding of plumbing and fixing small things around the house.

Cleaning up the tap or the water tank.

In the holidays, I've milked a cow a couple of times. The poor animal was just as confused

Luckily, she was not the kicking type. Not that I learned anything. 

Except that its neither comfortable nor easy to do on a daily basis

Manual work in and around the house was the first to be outsourced.

Get a machine. Or get a maid.

Clothes. Dishes. Washing and swabbing floors. 

There's a set of people who make a living from providing these services.

But here's the thing.

We need a mix of work that takes mental agility and work that doesn't

And the line that divided the two is either getting blurred or wiped away.

What shifts is the line of frustration as well.

The anger is palpable. Because outsourcing doesn't give you the satisfaction you expect

The truth is that the mundane and the magical need to co-exist.

We're trying to iron out every crease of dissatisfaction. Doing nothing we dislike.

Imagine eating only sweets at every meal.

Exactly.

Where will offline-online commerce meet?

Normally, the two are far apart.

But the new Walmart stores are where ecommerce and offline commerce meet

You download the Walmart store app.

And it guides you through the aisles you want to pick things up from.

Browsing for purchases in the real world 

The influence of digital design is hard to miss.

The top lines of signs look like browser tabs.

The sections have huge signage in 3D.

Looks a lot easier on the eye.

But the overall effect in the photographs is pleasing.

The space between the aisles looks wider. Social distancing seems to have played a role here as well.

And no lines at check out. Essentially, you are shopping online and offline at the same time.

In the ecommerce world, you add to cart and then wait for the store to deliver

Here, you add to cart and checkout by yourself.

No assistants required.

It's a good time to launch when people want to go into stores but keep human interaction to a minimum.

It's a definite departure from the regular shopping experience.

It's not clear if the stocking of the shelves is handled by humans or machines.

But that's probably another story.

What do you think?

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