Hearing Aids and Artificial Intelligence

Hearing is a complicated series of events where everything has to go just right to allow you to hear your environment. You likely don’t realize how important each step is until you start to experience hearing loss.

At Fidelity Hearing Centers, we know you want to hear sounds naturally through your hearing aids. You want crisp, clear sound with no tinny echoes or feedback. Luckily, hearing aid manufacturers were quick to take advantage of advances in artificial intelligence to help give you the best hearing experience possible.

Don’t be frightened by technology. We are here to talk you through it, let you test your hearing aids, show you that there is help on the manufacturers’ websites and even 24-hour helplines. Consult Fidelity Hearing Center today to start your better hearing experience. Here’s some information on the technology and artificial intelligence waiting to help you.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a specific computer science field consisting of programs that apply intelligent or learned solutions to complex problems. One common use of artificial intelligence is to process large amounts of data and use rules or guidelines set by the programmer to find a response the average person would consider appropriate. Many people think movie robots when they think about artificial intelligence, but a lot of the uses are unseen such as applications have been to track and identify insider traders, letting a computer do complex personnel scheduling or using a computer to take photos of cars passing through intersections.

Artificial Intelligence and Hearing Aids

Hearing aids are tiny bundles of technology that can be greatly beneficial if they are paired with a computer. And that’s a lot simpler than it sounds. If your hearing aids are integrated with your smartphone, you are using a computer. At least one hearing aid manufacturer has integrated learning technology with their hearing aids. It uses an app which lets users adjust the settings on their hearing aids based on their environment. It will remember the settings when you return to that environment.

Remember, there are layers of sounds around you all the time. Some sounds you don’t even recognize as sounds anymore they are just background like the refrigerator or the heat turning on or the hum of insects when you are outside. Some sounds you just block out when you are concentrating on another sounds – like having a conversation with someone and the radio is on.
Let’s say you are at a recital for your grandchild. You want to block out the hum of florescent lights or conversation from someone sitting nearby. Your brain does all these things naturally, seamlessly as it processes sound, figures out what you are interested in and then blends the layers together and let you focus on what you want.

With hearing loss, the layers don’t blend or fade out like they used to and it’s more difficult to focus on one sound. There is one hearing aid manufacturer that uses high-speed, high definition processing to “recognize” natural sounds, layer than and replicate what you would naturally focus on to give you a better “natural” hearing experience.

What’s Next with Artificial Intelligence?

Hearing aid manufacturers are continuing to fine tune processors in hearing aids to enhance voices and other specific sounds while helping you filter out background noise. Researchers are even working on hearing devices that will recognize specific voices and speech patterns.

Artificial intelligence can be used to turn hearing aids into health monitoring devices.  The artificial intelligence in your hearing aid would learn your normal pulse and breathing rate and remember that if you exercise at a certain time or if you are in a certain area your pulse goes up and so does your breathing rate. If there is a change in your normal routine and pulse rate or breathing, it would send an alert to a family member or perhaps medical professional. This would be a great advantage to those who want to live independently but still have that added security of knowing they have a link to family or a facility. Researchers are also looking at ways a hearing aid could be programmed to measure blood glucose and body temperature.

Fidelity Hearing Centers

Are you in the market for new hearing aids? Are you looking for the latest in hearing technology? Give us a call at Fidelity Hearing Centers and we’ll determine the best hearing solutions for you in your journey towards better hearing health.

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