What was the exact purpose of the device in Regan's ear?

What was the exact purpose of the device in Regan's ear? - Man in Black Suit Achieved an Accomplishment

In A Quiet Place, there was a device like an earbud in the ear of the daughter, Regan, on day 472. Later, her father gives her a new device which she refused at first, but later wore it on her head and ear. To test it, she made a sound with her fingers but apparently she didn't hear anything. I would like to know why - because in a scene, when the alien is near her in farms, there's a sound which irritates her ear and tris to cover her ear, maybe to stop that irritation (and in the end too), so makes me think it works or not.

Towards the end, we discover that it creates some sound which irritates the creatures.

In the last scene, she picks up a few items from the table and her mother touches her head to explain something, which I didn't get. (What were those items?)

So what was the purpose of those devices? And what's difference between those two devices, the one she wore before and she wore later?

PS: If possible, kindly don't explain me the ending of movie. I've seen it but I don't want to know what exactly happened (or would happen) in the end of movie.



Best Answer

It's a type of hearing aid called a cochlear implant.

I'm not a doctor or hearing expert… so straight from Wikipedia…

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A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthetic device to provide a person with moderate to profound sensorineural hearing loss a modified sense of sound. CI bypasses the normal acoustic hearing process to replace it with electric signals which directly stimulate the auditory nerve. A person with a cochlear implant receiving intensive auditory training may learn to interpret those signals as sound and speech.

Essentially, a receiver is surgically implanted in the skull and an external transmitter is used to send signals to it, converted from a microphone input.

The daughter, Regan, is shown very early in the plot to be profoundly deaf and communicates using sign language. Presumably she had the operation to implant the receiver before the 'quiet time', but either the external transmitter was lost or never supplied.
The father, Lee Abbot, is shown to be looking for potential components to manufacture a transmitter right from the opening scene - showing the audience this has been an ongoing search for a functional system to help his daughter to hear.

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The fact his construction didn't work properly and instead generated audio/radio feedback led to a potential winning move against the aliens, making their ultra-sensitive hearing an impediment or weakness.

At the end she's shown with the ham radio transmitter, hearing aid and a microphone - presumably to be able to transmit the noise across a much wider area.




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What was the exact purpose of the device in Regan's ear? - Concentrated young black woman working remotely on computer while sitting in room at table and petting dog



What is cochlear implant surgery?

Cochlear implants use a sound processor that fits behind the ear. The processor captures sound signals and sends them to a receiver implanted under the skin behind the ear. The receiver sends the signals to electrodes implanted in the snail-shaped inner ear (cochlea).

Why does Regan wear a hearing aid?

President Reagan has begun wearing a custom-made, technologically advanced hearing aid in his right ear after experiencing increased difficulty hearing high-pitched sound. Mr. Reagan, who is 72 years old, began wearing the device last week, according to the White House.

What is the device in A Quiet Place?

The device Regan wears is not a hearing aid, but a cochlear implant. This indicates that Regan has a sensorineural hearing loss, which means her inner ear has sustained some sort of damage. The cochlear implant translates vibrations in the air into nerve impulses that the brain perceives as sound.

Can Regan hear in A Quiet Place?

Regan is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with her family. This proves essential to the Abbott's survival in a world where sound can mean death.



Compilation of President Reagan's Humor from Selected Speeches, 1981-89




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Images: Andrea Piacquadio, FOX, RF._.studio, Samson Katt