The Mission to Make Everyone Hear Loud and Clear

According to the Indian Journal Of Otology, around 63 million in our country suffer from significant auditory loss, and over one lakh babies are born with hearing deficiencies. It has also been projected by WHO that by 2050, 1 in 4 people will have hearing problems. In general, the hearing problem is a huge issue and the solutions available in the market are costly and risky. Let’s see how the innovation of the twin founders Raman & Lakshman is going to change the lives of people who are suffering from hearing problems and need support.

Raman & Lakshmanan who are in the final year of their electronics and communication engineering have been very passionate about innovations since childhood. Most of the innovations which they initially created are from scratch in their backyard and that’s how they came up with their venture’s name - Backyard Creators

One day the twins met a kid on the next street who had hearing issues. Seeing the kid’s condition, they rushed to his mother and asked about the problem. They got to know that the kid had hearing loss since birth and the only solution that is available is an open skull surgery which is very risky and costs a fortune. At that time, the twins did not take it seriously and moved on with their daily routine. After a few weeks, they got to know that the kid had undergone an open skull surgery for which his family sold their own home to cover the expenses. But even after the surgery, other complications were noticed and the entire family went through a lot of problems. Raman & Lakshman started researching the problem of hearing loss in India and the solutions available.?

Strangely, they found that apart from an open skull surgery there are no other solutions available that can be implanted by avoiding surgery. As per World Health Organization, 70 million people require an open skull surgery, out of which only 10% of people take the step towards the same because of the high risk and cost involved. That’s when the twin founders decided to start working on a hearing device solution that can be implanted without surgery!?

The device which the twin founders are developing creates a transcranial? magnetic stimulation to the cochlea which activates its senses and enables the patient to hear without an implantation surgery. The twins have already bagged two patents under their name for this technology. According to them, twin founders believe that they will get the expected support from the society because of the revolutionary technology of their device and higher retention aspect.

The major challenge they faced while validating the device was that even if they could enable people to hear, such people cannot understand the message being conveyed through the sound as they have hearing loss from their birth. Hence they will have to provide basic speech therapy for at least six months to enable them to completely understand what they hear.

Going forward they plan to work with the NGOs and CSR initiatives to identify and offer their hearing device technology to people who cannot afford the same. Also, there are various government policies for assistive tech products which they can leverage to take the technology to all the people out there who need it. Raman & Lakshmanan’s next twelve months roadmap is the product completion, product validation, making the modifications according to the reviews, and going for the certifications. They are also making their application through which the patient can get access to speech therapy.?

“We filed one more patent for our product using the TIDE fund which we received through DERBI Foundation and today with the help of HDFC Parivartan program we will be able to boost our research and development. We are very happy that as students we were able to identify and solve such a huge problem in the society. We believe that his device will change the lives of millions.” the twins shared.

About the Writer:

Before starting her own venture, Aashna Shah worked at CIIE.CO, an incubation center based out of IIM Ahmedabad, wherein she worked with various startups. Whenever she used to meet startups and other stakeholders, everyone used to talk about just numbers. She realized that in the race of highlighting only numbers, the ecosystem has forgotten to mention the founder’s journey. Thus, she started Beyond Norms with a vision to capture the 'human' aspects of the startup journey and with a desire to make ecosystem more inclusive!

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