Innovation. The Lépine competition rewards a “listening assistant” headset for the hearing impaired.

The Lépine competition, which rewards the best inventions, awarded its most prestigious distinction on Friday to a "listening assistant" headset, which amplifies sounds for the hearing impaired thanks to dual sound conduction, air and bone.

During this 124th edition of the competition - which took place at Porte de Versailles within the Paris Fair (April 30-May 11) - a total of 250 inventions were in the running and were scrutinized by a jury of around fifty people.

On Friday evening, the President of the Republic's most prestigious prize, which takes the form of a Sèvres porcelain vase, was awarded to Raphaël Zakine for a "listening assistant" called Spokeo. This device "allows communication to be restored with a hearing-impaired person: 70% of people with hearing loss do not wear a hearing aid, for many different reasons, and yet at certain times it is necessary to be able to communicate with them without having to repeat or raise your voice," summarizes Michael Uzzan, one of the three co-inventors alongside Raphaël Zakine, an optician, and Jonathan Goldminc, a hearing aid specialist, and himself an optician by profession working in nursing homes.

Spokeo includes a small lavalier microphone into which the person speaking will speak, and a black headset, similar in appearance to those used for listening to music, which allows sound to travel through the air but also "by conduction through the bones to reach the inner ear" of the hearing-impaired person "even when the ear canal is blocked. This dual-conductor technology is patented," he explains. On the market for five months, at a price of 598 euros, Spokeo is primarily aimed at caregivers and health professionals: "ophthalmologists in particular love it because when they operate on cataracts, the patient is conscious and must be able to follow instructions" - and therefore hear them - such as "not moving the eye at certain times," notes Michael Uzzan, 54.

Beyond health, other "more general" uses can be imagined, notes the director of the Lépine competition, Barbara Dorey, who cites "notaries who need to be clearly understood in the context of inheritances" or even "doctors during teleconsultations."

The second prize in the Lépine competition went to Bruno Tronchi, for having developed an electric lighting socket, compatible with E14 and E27 screw-in bulbs (among the most commonly used) and which incorporates a protection mechanism preventing any risk of electrocution. "It's not necessarily only children who can be trapped, but also improper handling by an adult. I was trapped very young, at 14, I lost consciousness," confides Bruno Tronchi, whose production of this socket called PAP'S will "start soon", for marketing in early 2026 at around 6 euros for an E27 bulb, and 5 euros for an E14.

Finally, the competition's Connected Universe Award went to Christophe Bureau and his #dotdot device, a small box that, combined with an app, allows you to "share for free, or sell, gigabytes of unused mobile internet access, by creating a Wi-Fi network visible up to 100 meters around you." The box, which retails for €40, has been on the market since January.

Barbara Dorey spoke of "an interesting vintage" for 2025, emphasizing that "the Lépine competition is not just a dream, it is really happening, it is useful, we find the inventions in our society."