AI and Hearing Aids – the Synergy

When somebody talks about artificial intelligence (AI), it may conjure thoughts of your favorite sci-fi movie. But these days, AI is more science than fiction. This is especially true when it comes to hearing aids. The days when hearing aids merely boosted the volume and were one-size-fits-all are gone forever. AI is at the root of modern hearing aids.

What is artificial intelligence?

AI is a type of technology that makes use of sophisticated algorithms to generate new results from inputs of data. AI is able to use an algorithm to participate in a type of learning known as “machine learning”. When the algorithm is working correctly, there’s no need to “program” the AI to generate each individual result.

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

How can you hear better with AI?

At first, this could seem a little abstract. Hearing aids do seem to have a straightforward function, after all. How can adding AI to the situation enhance things? Well, you know that row of big dials and switches that people use to mix music in recording studios? (Maybe you’ve seen them in movies.) There’s a little tiny one of those inside of your hearing aid. Better sound quality can be attained by altering these settings. AI-powered hearing aids change these digital dials and switches automatically, improving how you hear without any work by you.

These smart devices use a rich neural network to imitate human brain responses. Because of this, these hearing aids respond in real-time to situations without being programmed to deal with them.

This may sound like futuristic science, but it’s the same basic technology that allows streaming services to suggest programming according to your viewing history. Newer cars use this technology to help you drive more safely and your email provider utilizes it to auto-sort emails into your inbox. The more you use these devices, the more efficient they become at making correct decisions.

AI hearing aids – new innovations

Presently, hearing aids are integrating several brand new improvements in AI to help you hear even better. Here are some of the best examples:

• Acoustic environment classification: Every room you walk into has its own distinctive acoustic characteristics. Your hearing aids can deal with some of those properties, but others it doesn’t do so well with. You will hear better in almost any setting with AI technology making effective automatic adjustments.
• Edge mode: This is an assist mode which can be activated by the user. Essentially, when you have a difficult time hearing, you can activate something known as Edge Mode. This then activates the AI algorithm and the algorithm will start working to make your hearing clearer.
• Noisy room filters: If you’re in a setting that has lots of echoes, or is excessively 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 person across from you is talking about as AI filters out unwanted information.
• Helping you hear through facemasks: Conversations were certainly harder during the pandemic when everybody was wearing a facemask. AI algorithms can automatically amplify those voices behind the facemask, helping individuals with hearing aids hear better and stay safe at the same time.

Hearing aid manufacturers and scientists are constantly innovating new hearing aid technologies, so this may be just the tip of the iceberg.

How is AI employed in the field of audiology?

These days, AI has kind of become something of a buzzword. Everybody’s heard it, which is good, but the difficulty is that AI does different things depending on the applications. So with regard to the field of audiology, how does AI fit in.

Making hearing aids even more useful for patients is one of the first and most evident things that researchers are tackling. This research includes new technologies, like deep neural networks and machine learning. But it isn’t just hearing aids. Helping patients hear better and even diagnosing hearing loss are a couple of the things that AI will most likely do in the future.

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

The advantages of AI-assisted hearing aids

AI is being incorporated into hearing aids not because it’s the hot new fad, unlike other industries. These machine learning algorithms offer some significant benefits to patients. Among those benefits are the following:

• Health tracking and fall prevention: If you happen to fall while you’re wearing your hearing aids, your AI-assisted devices may be able to detect the significance and severity of your tumble. In some situations, these hearing aids may be programmed to automatically notify 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 information easier to understand.
• Helping you listen to devices: Your hearing aid can get feedback from lots of devices, like televisions, cell phones, speaker phones, and a range of other devices. This feedback can be filtered out by machine learning algorithms so the sound you actually want to hear is the only sound you will hear.
• You have more control over how you hear: You can activate AI or turn it off with most AI-assisted hearing aids. This means hearing aid users will have more control over the clarity of sound they hear. And this usually means a better all-around hearing experience.
• Social engagement: Studies have shown that people who wear AI-assisted hearing aids are more successful when it comes to dealing with their social engagement. This is probably because the speech they hear is clearer in a larger number of settings. But that doesn’t automatically mean AI will make-or-break your social life. Most likely, it simply helps those who are already social better manage their relationships.

How does this impact patients?

These benefits frequently translate into real-world advantages for individuals who use these AI-assisted hearing aids. Imagine you are having a conversation at a party. An older hearing aid would make everything louder. And unfortunately, background noise also gets boosted making it impossible to hear voices. With AI, the hearing aid can listen to the noise around you and respond the way your brain would, dulling background noise and focusing on your friends’ voices.

AI will generate a location-by-location program to deal with the various kinds of sounds it detects. If you go back to a particular location or sound profile, AI can initiate these algorithms. In order to better identify and amplify important sounds, some AI hearing aids are programmed with day-to-day sounds.

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

• The cognitive burden will be decreased.
• You will have improved quality of life.
• You won’t be aggravated because you can’t hear (at least, not as frequently).

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 offered in the vast majority of hearing aids due to the costs involved. After all, the device itself has to perform some extreme calculations (an algorithm, of course, is essentially a very fancy math problem). However, in part because of the preponderance of the technology, prices for AI hearing aids are starting to go down.

That’s not saying that those hearing aids will definitely come down in price soon and you still might wind up wanting a model that doesn’t have AI functionality. Clearly, patients will still have to make important choices. But AI features are becoming more widely obtainable and prevalent.

Deciding what’s best for you

Hearing aids with AI might be overkill for someone who lives by themselves and stays home a lot. But AI makes a huge difference for individuals who are socially involved and go out into loud situations a lot.

For somebody who uses traditional hearing aids and still gets exhausted easily in social scenarios, AI hearing aids would be very helpful. AI-powered hearing aids decrease the listener’s exhaustion and make social situations more enjoyable. When the doorbell rings, or when you have a fall AI technology can alert you or a loved one and it can even track your steps. As technology and AI improve, hearing aids will continue to as well.

Want to find out how AI hearing aids can work for you? Schedule an appointment with us right away.