The Future Of Hearing Aids?
Author: Doctor Health
In order to discuss the future of hearing aids we must understand their past.
Hearing Aids have been around for decades in the early days they weren’t very sophisticated and lacked anything more than a basic form of amplification.
The rate of growth of hearing aid technology has been linked to the rate of growth of general technology in the world.
There are two types of hearing aids:
• Analogue
• Digital
Analogue meant that the sound going into the microphone of the hearing aid was directly proportional to the sound coming out. No elaborate formulae were used to process the sound. As a safety precaution they would have what’s called ‘peak clipping’. This is when the sound gets above a certain level, the hearing aid cuts it off so it can never reach a users pain threshold.
About fifteen years ago leading manufacturers introduced digital technology, and the first of the hearing aids were pseudo- digital. They performed like a digital hearing aid but weren’t as capable as what is available today. As time has gone on the expectations of hearing aids to perform better and better with more and more functions became immense. Once people could hear better and realised the potential, their expectations grew and users wanted:
• better sound quality
• hear better in noisy situations
• smaller more discreet hearing aids
• compatibility with phones
• capability to listen to music
User expectation and competition between manufacturers of these hearing aids meant that they improved vastly from the days of the analogue hearing aids.
More powerful hearing aids in the smallest size were introduced with features that would cut down wind noise, echoes, sudden loud sounds and annoying whistling.
It looks like hearing aids have reached a plateau in terms of size but not in technology.
As technology races on in the modern world so too does it in the hearing aid world.
Dual core laptops… and now dual core hearing aids – This means that even more features could be added without the risk of other operations being affected. Hearing aids are now twice as fast as they were 2 years ago and as research into the human ear progresses it opens up ways to allow people to hear more naturally then they thought was possible through the use of modern hearing aids.
Manufacturers strive to stay ahead of their competition by introducing different styles and connectivity possibilities which has led to
• open fit hearing aids
• Bluetooth enabled hearing aids.
Open fit hearing aids are for people with high frequency hearing loss. They fit in such a manner that it allows natural sounds to pass into the ear canal but at the same time the hearing aid enhances the higher tones thus allowing users to hear across the frequency range.
Bluetooth enabled hearing aids together with the use of a device that sits like a medallion around the users neck allow the user to connect to his/her mobile phone to make hands free calls. It also allows music to be streamed direct to the hearing aids from CD or mp3 players.
So, what is the future of hearing aids?
We know that in terms of sizes they will not get any smaller then a completely in canal (CIC) aid.
In terms of technology, we can see that smaller aids will have the same features as larger aids.
As for the features themselves, manufacturers will push the boundaries along with advancements in other technologies and industries, challenging one another.
And what about the hearing aid users? They will be given more and more freedom to adjust their own hearing aids.
The point remains modern Digital Hearing Aids have never been so advanced at meeting user requirements compared to hearing aids of the past, which have built a stigma of being unfashionable and outdated. The truth is many people do not know what is on offer in today’s market.
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