Abstract

A hearing aid has a housing which can be worn at the head, such as in or behind the ear, and which contains the basic electrical and acoustic elements of the hearing aid. The housing has a portion adapted for introduction into the auditory canal, and a cover, both of which are electrically conductive and are insulated from each other by an insulating layer therebetween, thus forming a capacitor. A control device for transmitting control signals to the hearing aid housing is integrated in a commonly worn article, such as a wristwatch or a piece of jewelry. The control device has a capacitor having spaced plates, the plates forming components of the commonly worn article. The control device includes one or more manually operable control signal actuators which generate an electric field at the control device permitting the control signals to be capacitively transmitted to the housing, such as in the form of a pulse sequence.