--- description: Find out why Earlens Contact Hearing Solution is one of the best inventions of 2020. title: Earlens Contact Hearing Solution: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40bce7b829423d9e/698a14328fd2ee2d1c361f71/best-inventions-of-2020-Earlens-Contact-Hearing-Solution-5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 19, 2020 # Mimicking Sound Waves Earlens Contact Hearing Solution by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Courtesy Most hearing aids do a decent job of amplifying mid tones but struggle with the highs and lows, resulting in sound that is flat and dull. That makes it hard to follow conversations in a crowd—the so-called cocktail-­party effect. [Earlens](https://earlens.com/patients/ "undefined") ($6,000 per ear) upends the process, nixing the amplifier entirely and instead using a tiny lens that sits next to the eardrum. A microphone housed in the device’s over-the-ear processor picks up sounds, which an algorithm converts into vibrations that are transmitted to the eardrum. Put another way: rather than turning up the sound, Earlens actually re-creates the effect of the sound waves. _—Marjorie Korn_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911312/earlens-contact-hearing-solution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911312/earlens-contact-hearing-solution/"},"headline":"Mimicking Sound Waves","datePublished":"2020-11-19T13:47:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:45:43.811Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911312/earlens-contact-hearing-solution/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2020"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40bce7b829423d9e/698a14328fd2ee2d1c361f71/best-inventions-of-2020-Earlens-Contact-Hearing-Solution-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40bce7b829423d9e/698a14328fd2ee2d1c361f71/best-inventions-of-2020-Earlens-Contact-Hearing-Solution-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911312/earlens-contact-hearing-solution/","name":"Mimicking Sound Waves"}}]}] ```