The arrival of the microprocessor
By the beginning of the 1980s, LEDs and microprocessors were beginning to have an impact on the hearing industry leading gradually to less bulky test devices and hearing instruments.
In 1981, Delmar F. Bloem and Robert M. Simenson acquired groundbreaking electro-nystagmograph (ENG) technology from its developers, Instrumentation and Control Systems, Inc., and founded ICS Medical.
Del and Bob, as they were known, succeeded in building up a company that specialized in technological innovations in balance and evoked potential testing, harnessing the power of computer technology at a time when it was still in its infancy.
At the same time, Madsen Electronics was applying microprocessor-based technology to the popular OB 822 clinical audiometer (>4000 units sold) and to the ERA 2250 evoked response audiometer.
Danplex likewise exploited the new electronics to automatize audiometry and middle ear testing while Hortmann began marketing Danplex audiometers and tympanometers in Germany. Besides getting involved in the exciting new field of cochlear implants, Hortmann also collaborated with the Westend Clinic at Berlin University to develop evoked response technology.
Madsen celebrates the first 25 years
In 1985, Poul Madsen
and friends from
all over the world gathered in Herlev to celebrate the company’s
25th Jubilee. By this time, both Madsen companies had taken the technological leap to developing testing
systems featuring monitors and menu-driven user interfaces: the ZO 174 for immittance measurement and
the IGO-HAT 1000 for measuring insertion gain. This latter technique measured hearing instrument (H.I.)
performance at the eardrum and has since become the universal standard for verifying H.I. fit (nowadays
more commonly known now as real ear measurement).
Another first, this time in ENG
1984
had also been a very busy year for ICS Medical who broke new ground in the field
of balance testing
with the first commercial computer-based system for electronystagmography (ENG).
ICS were also the first to integrate computer-controlled optical and caloric stimuli with the recording and analysis system.
Yet another first – audiogram transfer to a PC
From the early 1980s, Madsen Electronics had foreseen the significance of the PC (the OB 822 was equipped with a serial data port from its inception in 1982). After some years’ collaboration with an Italian software developer on audiological software, 1989 bore witness to a major landmark: an audiogram threshold was successfully transferred from an audiometer to a PC in front of an enthusiastic audience of North American dealers in Herlev.
In 1983, Danplex changed its name to Rexton Danplex and became involved in the manufacture of custom-made hearing aids. The company was taken over in 1987 by Siemens and given the task of constructing an interface box for fitting digital hearing aids called the PMC. Three new immittance devices were launched in 1988, all in a smart, high-tech design. The cutting-edge HandTymp even featured infrared data transfer to printer.
