Draft:Scott D. Holden

Scott D. Holden is an American entrepreneur, inventor, and engineer who patented numerous instruments designed to help those with speech and hearing impairments. His devices were marketed under the trademarked names Phonic Ear and Phonic Mirror by his company, HC Electronics, Inc. between 1963 and 1975.

Phonic Mirror
While employed as a speech pathologist in Palo Alto, CA, Ruth Holden often used multiple recording devices to teach her students. She asked Holden if he could develop a device that would perform the same task as multiple recorders. Holden designed and prototyped an instrument that could record both the therapist and student voices, and then play back their speech after a four second delay. Using this technique a therapist could speak a word, have the student repeat it, and then compare their utterances during playback. Holden named this new automatic speech playback device the Phonic Mirror (patented in 1968 ), and demonstrated it at the 1962 Northern California Speech and Hearing Convention in San Francisco, where it received widespread interest. More than 20,000 Phonic Mirrors were sold.

Founding of HC Electronics, Inc.
In 1963, Holden resigned from his job at Sierra Electronics Corporation and began to manufacturer the first one-hundred Phonic Mirror playback instruments. He formed a company, HC Electronics, Inc., in Palo Alto, CA, to produce the Phonic Mirror.

Phonic Ear
Following the success of Phonic Mirror, Holden recognized that he could also manufacture instruments to provide high-quality sound amplification for hearing impaired children in the classroom. Phonic Ear was a body worn system containing microphones and an amplifier that transmitted sound to ear inserts at a volume and clarity that allowed hearing-impaired children to hear more normally than they were able to with typical hearing aids.

Incorporation of Delayed Auditory Feedback in Phonic Mirror
Holden, at the urging of Dr. Bruce Ryan of the Behavioral Sciences Institute in Monterey, CA, next invented an instrument that incorporated Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), a process that Ryan was investigating for its ability to reduce stuttering. The DAF instrument would record a speaker’s voice and then play it back a fraction of a second later through an earpiece. DAF, a technique still in use today, is used to help stutterers slow their speech rate and improve their fluency. Holden and HC Electronics, Inc. were the first manufacturer of a wearable DAF device, and it was marketed as the Phonic Mirror HC DAF.

Development of FM Technologies for Phonic Ear
Holden next modified the Phonic Ear to receive audio through a built-in microphones and by way of FM transmissions. The FM Phonic Ear was designed for use in the classroom where teachers wore a microphone that transmitted their voice to the student’s FM Phonic Ear instrument. This allowed the students to clearly hear their teacher anywhere within range of the FM receiver. In 1972, based largely upon Holden’s efforts, the FCC allocated a band of FM frequencies specifically for the education of the hearing impaired. Children’s author CeCe Bell utilized Phonic Ear FM, and included her experiences in her book, El Deafo. Phonic Ear FM expanded beyond the classroom and was also used in theaters and other venues to help immerse the hearing impaired.

Expansion and sale of HC Electronics
Holden ultimately produced more than 20 variants of his Phonic Mirror and Phonic Ear instruments and expanded the reach of HC Electronics, Inc. internationally. Between 1963 and 1975, HC Electronics, Inc. opened sales offices in nineteen US locations, established an international headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, and opened twelve additional offices throughout Europe and Canada. While in Europe, Holden partnered with Phonak A.G. to be the sole marketer of Phonak’s line of hearing aids in the world. The hearing aids were marketed under the Phonic Ear brand name. In 1975 Holden sold his interest in HC Electronics, Inc. to American Hospital Supply.

Professional Sailor
While establishing the Phonic Ear International A/S in Copenhagen, Holden lived aboard his sailing vessel Phonic Mirror. He spent two years sailing the Baltic and North Seas; transited his ketch, Phonic Ear, from England to the Mediterranean Sea; spent several years cruising the Mediterranean; and ultimately completed a twenty-day trans-Atlantic crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean Sea.