The Synergy of Hearing aids and AI

When someone talks about artificial intelligence (AI), it may arouse thoughts of your favorite sci-fi movie. But today, AI is a reality that we all better get accustomed to. This is particularly true when it comes to hearing aids. The times when hearing aids merely boosted the volume and were one-size-fits-all are gone for good. AI is at the root of contemporary hearing aids.

What is artificial intelligence?

AI is a form of technology that utilizes complex algorithms to produce new results from inputs of data. AI is able to use an algorithm to participate in a kind of learning called “machine learning”. When the algorithm is working properly, there’s no need to “program” the AI to produce each individual result.

Depending on the degree of hearing loss, lifestyle, and habits, AI in hearing aids can make changes depending on your behaviors and your requirements. This makes your hearing aid more effective at improving your hearing.

How can AI help hearing aids work better?

This may seem a little abstract at first. Hearing aids do seem to have a basic function, after all. How can things be enhanced by adding AI to the mix? Well, picture a recording studio with the soundboard loaded with buttons and dials. (Perhaps you’ve seen them in movies.) There’s a tiny one of those inside of your hearing aid. Better sound quality can be obtained by adjusting these settings. With hearing aids that are powered by AI, these settings are changed automatically without needing you to do anything.

This AI hearing aid imitates human brain response using a deep neural network. Without even being programmed to, these devices react to real-time situations because of this.

This is the same technology that allows streaming services to recommend movies according to your viewing history, though it probably sounds like space-aged technology at first. Newer cars utilize this technology to help you drive more safely and your emAIl provider uses it to auto-sort emAIls into your inbox. These devices become more expert at making correct decisions the more you use them.

New advances in AI hearing aids

Hearing aids nowadays are helping you hear even better with new developments in AI technology. Here are a few of the best examples:

• Acoustic environment classification: Distinctive audio properties come with each individual room you walk into. Your hearing aids can deal with some of those properties, but others it doesn’t do so well with. With AI technology, your hearing aid can effectively make automatic adjustments that let you hear better in just about any setting.
• Noisy room filters: If you’re in a location that has a lot of echoes, or is extremely loud, new AI technology algorithms can separate out room noise. A hearing aid can have a hard time with cross-talk, for instance. But even in a noisy setting, you’ll be able to hear more clearly what the individual across from you is talking about as AI filters out unwanted information.
• Helping you hear through facemasks: Conversations were definitely tougher during the pandemic when everyone was wearing a facemask. You can remain safer and hear better at the same time as AI algorithms can amplify the voice behind the facemask.
• Edge mode: This is an assist mode which can be initiated by the user. Basically, you can activate something called edge mode whenever you’re having a tough time hearing. When this is triggered AI will start working on clearing up what you’re hearing.

Hearing aid manufacturers and scientists are constantly innovating new hearing aid technologies, so this might be just the beginning.

AI for the field of audiology

These days, AI has sort of become something of a buzzword. Everybody’s heard it, which is good, but the trouble is that AI does different things depending on the contexts. So in terms of the field of audiology, how does AI integrate.

First, it means that scientists are looking for ways to make hearing aids even more helpful to patients. This research includes new technologies, such as deep neural networks and machine learning. But it’s not just hearing aids. In the future, AI might be able to help with detecting hearing loss or even helping patients avoid future hearing loss.

Patients will see AI in more and more of their devices as the technology becomes more dependable.

AI-assisted hearing aids and their advantages

AI is being incorporated into hearing aids not because it’s the popular new fad, in contrast to other industries. These machine learning algorithms offer some considerable benefits to patients. Here are a few of those benefits:

• You have more control over how you hear: You can activate AI or turn it off with most AI-assisted hearing devices. So the quality of sound users hear will be more in their control. And this normally means a better all-around hearing experience.
• Helping you listen to devices: Your hearing aid can get feedback from lots of devices, like televisions, cell phones, speaker phones, and a myriad of other devices. This feedback can be filtered out by machine learning algorithms so the sound you want to hear is the only sound you will hear.
• Social engagement: In terms of dealing with social interaction, people who utilize AI-assisted hearing aids are likely to be more successful, according to some research. The speech that they hear will be clearer in a wide spectrum of settings, which likely accounts for better social interaction. But that doesn’t automatically mean AI will make-or-break your social life. Likely, it simply helps those who are already social better manage their relationships.
• Health tracking and fall prevention: When you’re using a hearing aid and you take a fall, your AI-assisted device can detect the seriousness of your fall. In some situations, these hearing aids may be programmed to automatically alert authorities or loved ones if there is a severe fall. Should you be drinking more water, exercising more, eating better? AI can make your health data easier to interpret.

What this means for patients

These benefits often lead to real-world advantages for people with these AI-assisted hearing aids. Imagine you were at a party having a conversation. If you had an older-style hearing aid, it would just boost the volume up. This isn’t useful because the conversation you actually care about will get overpowered by background noise. An AI hearing aid is intelligent and will be able to identify and boost a person’s voice while lowering undesired noise.

AI learns to recognize sounds and creates a location-by-location program. If you return to a particular location or sound profile, AI can initiate these programs. Other hearing aids with AI are programmed with day-to-day sounds in order to better identify and amplify important sounds.

Here are some other practical benefits to AI-assisted hearing aids:

• You won’t be frustrated because you can’t hear (at least, not as often).
• Your quality of life will improve.
• Your brain will experience a reduced cognitive load.

You will be able to spend time with friends again, watch your favorite shows, and take good care of your brain, in other words.

Cost vs. reward

There was a time when AI wasn’t available in most hearing aids because of the costs involved. After all, the device itself has to perform some extreme calculations (an algorithm, after all, is essentially a very elegant math problem). But prices are decreasing, partly due to the prevalence of the technology.

That’s not saying that those hearing aids will absolutely come down in price soon and you still may end up choosing a model that doesn’t have AI functionality. Obviously, the decision making is in the hands of the patient. However, it does mean that these AI-assisted features are becoming more common and more widely available.

Finding out what option is best for you

Hearing aids with AI might be too much for somebody who lives by themselves and stays put a lot. To someone who is socially involved and finds themselves in scenarios with many competing sounds, however, it makes a huge difference.

Hearing aids with AI are also practical for somebody who is quickly worn out in social scenarios where the chore of keeping up with conversations using a traditional hearing aid is exhausting. Social situations are easier and the user will feel less fatigued with AI hearing aids. AI technology can also send alerts to your phone when the doorbell rings, alert others that you have fallen, and track your steps. As technology and AI improve, hearing aids will continue to too.

Want to see how AI hearing aids can work for you? Make an appointment with us right away.