Information on Different Hearing Aid Features

Hearing aid technology has improved a lot over the recent years, but hearing aids have always been designed with four basic parts: a microphone, a processor, a receiver and a power source. The microphone picks up the sound and passes it to the processor. The processor enhances the signal and delivers it to the receiver, which delivers the signal to the ear canal. The power source drives the system.

New and advanced hearing aid technology

As hearing aid technology improves, digital hearing aids become more automatic and have more features to help you communicate in challenging listening situations. New technologies usually mean higher prices but greater benefits. 

Top-of-the-line sound processing and frequency response

All hearing aids process sound, which means that when sound arrives into the hearing aid, it has to be sectioned into channels of sound and digitized before it can be amplified. The better your hearing aid is, the more flexibility it has to band sounds that are amplified for your unique prescription for your hearing loss. This level of customization of a hearing aid is called its frequency response and is very useful.

Bluetooth compatibility

Bluetooth compatibility is a wireless feature that allows your hearing aids to connect to mobile phones and other devices that use Bluetooth, usually through an intermediary device. Bluetooth technology can also work to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and cut the problem of feedback from the microphone because the signal will bypass the microphone and directly enters the processor of the hearing aid. A Bluetooth connection is also a lot less likely to struggle with interference, which can occur with an FM system.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Some models of premium hearing aids come with AI in them, which will allow them to reach a deep neural network (DNN) to process the sound you hear. By logging volume control settings and program preferences for certain types of sound environments, the hearing aids can make these changes automatically when the hearing aid detects this environment. A DNN allows hearing aids to start to mimic the way your brain would hear a sound if your hearing wasn't impaired.  

Apps

Many of today's more advanced hearing aids now come with smartphone apps, allowing you to make adjustments, contact your audiologist and monitor the battery life of your hearing aid easily. Most importantly, some of these apps work as assistive listening devices by routing phone calls or other sources of sounds directly to your hearing aids. Some of these apps can also convert speech into text and translate different languages for you.

Rechargeable batteries

Increasingly, more and more hearing aids have rechargeable batteries, allowing you to avoid swapping out fiddly button batteries every few days or weeks. It's likely that these batteries will be widely available for most hearing aid models in the next few years.