Being hard of hearing can diminish life. It can take the fun out of friendly conversations. It can take the joy away from an afternoon at the movies. It can make it impossible to talk to a grandchild on the phone.

While that's all true, it's also true that technology has come to aid of people who are hard of hearing, opening or reopening the world of — if not natural sound, then at least — communication.

At a recent Hearing Loss Association conference in Reno, manufacturers, catalog companies and major telecommunications companies were on hand to explain and/or sell their wares to interested customers.

These wares spanned the gamut, from simple handheld hearing-assistance devices that cost less than $50 to surgically implanted cochlear implants that can run into many thousands of dollars.

To give an idea of the myriad of helpful devices available to the hard of hearing, here's a partial list of what was presented at the conference:

Telephone real-time captioning

CapTel Internet-based captioning is for people who have trouble hearing over the phone. All that's needed is a phone and a computer, said Anne Girard, director of marketing for Hamilton CapTel. "After you have that (equipment), you're able to make and receive phone calls, and on your computer screen, captioning of your calls will come up."

Cost: Free

Contact: www.hamiltoncaptel.com or call 866-990-4499

Infrared hearing devices

The Mobile Ear is an infrared receiver that goes over and into the ear, just like a hand-free telephone device. It gives a person with mild to moderate hearing loss the ability to amplify sounds received from an infrared transmitter. It can also be used in theaters with infrared transmitters.

Cost: $149 (deluxe) or $129 (standard); deluxe set comes with two mobile ears

Contact: mobileear.com or call 714-375-4302

Hearing aids

Hearing aid technology keeps improving its ability to screen out unwanted noise in much the same way our minds are able to sort through background sounds and zero in on what we want to hear.

"The biggest improvement in our new generation of hearing aids is our chip. That chip uses a process called integrated signal processing technology. It's a very fast chip that can process and make decisions about sound very rapidly," said Widex representative Prispan Holmberg. "In so doing, it gives the hearing aid a way to cross check the way decisions about sound are made.

"The ISP hearing aid is going to have good noise-suppression capability," Holmberg added. "It'll be capable of analyzing sound in the environment very rapidly, deciding which sounds in the environment are just noise and which sounds are more relevant, like speech."

Contact: www.widexusa.com

Home fire alarms

"Our Lifetone Technology Fire Safety Alarm Clock uses a unique listening technology. It hears the existing high-pitched smoke alarm, which recent studies have shown is ineffective in waking people who are hard of hearing," said Lifetone Technology President Mark Colello.

"Our technology is basically a bionic ear. It hears the existing alarms in your house and puts out its own alarm at the lower 520 Hertz level, which should waken most people," Colello added.

The alarm uses AC and has a battery backup that will give it a seven-day life span, even with the power out. This product is expected to go on sale at the end of 2008.

Contact: www.lifetonetechnology.com

Cochlear implant

"All cochlear implant manufacturers have the same goal — to help people hear better," said Advanced Bionics director of technical service Mike Browning. "But at our company, we do things slightly different. We are able to deliver stimulation simultaneously. We have multiple electrodes inside the cochlea. While the implants typically fire one electrode at a time, with ours, we're able to control every electrode independently, so we can fire one of them — or two or three — or all 16 of them at the same time. This mimics normal hearing."

Contact: info@advancedbionics.com or call 800-678-2575

Catalog sales

Harris Communications

"Harris Communications is the leading distributor of products for the hard of hearing," said company representative Katie Casey.

She said that the No. 1 asked-for devices are Bluetooth telephone accessories, which Harris carries, as well as other connectors, including powered and Bluetooth neckloops.

Among the hundreds of items Harris sells are various FM and infrared TV-listening devices.

"FM is good for someone who has a plasma TV, or if you'd like to listen to TV throughout the house," Casey said. She advised that when using infrared, the listener needs to be sitting directly in front of the television.

Contact: www.harriscomm.com or call 800-825-6758 (voice), 800-825-9187 (TTY)

Teltex

"We have products like amplified telephones, personal listening systems, assistive listening devices as well as smoke detectors with strobe, alarm clocks. We also carry other types of products that are pointed toward vision issues like large-button telephones and calculators," said company representative Daryl Gildenhuys.

"We also have equipment that can be operated by voice for people with mobility issues," he added, "but our focus is mainly on equipment for people with impaired hearing."

Contact: www.teltex.com or call 888-515-8120 (voice or TTY)

• Other catalog sources:

SilentCall Communications

Contact: www.silentcallcom or call 800-572-5227

SoundClarity

Contact: www.soundclaritycom or call 888-477-2995

HARC Accessolutions

Contact: www.harc.com or call 800-445-9968

SilentCall Communication

Contact: www.silentcall.com or call 516-410-7500

Yuba-Sutter resources

For more information on devices for the deaf or hearing impaired, there are two local organizations available to help.

NorCal Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 938 14th St., Suite 100, Marysville

Hours: 8:30-12:00 and 1:00-5:00 Monday, Thursday and Friday

Contact: www.norcalcenter.org or call 740-7803 (voice) or 740-7802 (TTY)

Cost: Fees depend on service

• • •

FREED Center for Independent Living, 508 J St., Marysville

Hours: 8:30-5:00, Monday through Friday

Contact: www.freed.org or call 742-4474 (voice or TTY)

Cost: Free

FREED also manages the California Assistive Technology Exchange (CATE). CATE is a free lending library of assistive aids for people or organizations.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Hollis at 741-2400 or jhollis@appeal-democrat.com