Hearing is an important sense that provides input to a dog about safety and other information from its surroundings. Dogs are susceptible to hearing loss, which can cause a serious safety concern, especially when off their leash. The average cost of a hearing aid for a dog ranges between approximately $3,000 to $5,000. It is, therefore, an expensive investment. The groups decision was to replace the need for hearing by representing sound signals with tactile vibration. This aim bypasses the cost burden placed on owners by traditional dog hearing aid devices.

Currently available hearing aids for pets appear to only amplify sounds and are not useful for pets that are completely deaf. The hearing aid that our group is developing is cost-effective and will allow pets suffering from all variations of deafness to be aware of their surroundings by converting sound to vibration.

The device will consist of two hearing aid devices fitted on both sides of a dog vest. The hearing aid will be mounted on a vest to be worn by the pet along with small motors that will vibrate proportionally to sound inputs from microphones also mounted on the vest. It will respond to sounds over a frequency range from 100 Hz to 24 kHz that exceed a level of 75 dBsl, which is consistent with the industry standard for pet hearing aids.