a Moi

Custom-made earbuds and hearing aids conventionally require a mould of your ear canal to be taken using silicon gel or putty. This then expands and hardens to create an accurate model of your inner ear.

A company called Lantos aims to transform this process with a pencil-thin 3D scanner. The slim scanner can be popped into the ear without the user even feeling it. The end of the scanner has a light and a membrane that can be inflated so it travels all of the way down the ear canal -- something that the silicon gel method cannot achieve. A liquid is then pushed into this membrane, allowing a camera to take note of thousands of data points along the canal.

This provides a much more comfortable way of creating a 3D ear map. The idea was initially developed in an MIT lab presided over by Doug Hart. Hart was responsible for developing a 3D oral scanning technology that has replaced the need for impression moulding teeth for dentistry purposes. 

Jeffrey Leathe has just been appointed as the new CEO of the company with responsibility for commercialising the technology for hearing aid, military and consumer use.  He has already headed up three new ventures within bioscience and will be responsible for using a recently-secured $4.1 in funding to move the prototype into production.

The technology -- which is undergoing clinical trials in the US -- could be useful for creating comfortable ear protection and communications devices for soldiers.

There are already a number of companies that specialise in making custom-made earbuds, including ACS, Sonomax's Sculpted Eers and Ultimate Ears. Lantos aims to provide an even more accurate and comfortably fitted earbud.


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