You might think of your favorite sci-fi movie when someone starts talking about artificial intelligence (AI). But nowadays, AI is more science than just fiction. When it comes to hearing aids, this is particularly true. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all hearing aids that just raise the volume of sounds around you. Contemporary, high-end hearing aids use AI.

Artificial intelligence – what exactly is it?

AI is a type of technology that utilizes complex algorithms to produce new results from inputs of data. In this way, AI algorithms participate in a kind of learning, aptly called “machine learning”. With AI the user doesn’t need to program every individual result because the algorithm does that on its own.

In the case of hearing aids, AI algorithms can help your hearing aids adapt to your personal needs based on your behaviors, lifestyle, habits, and level of hearing loss. Your hearing aids will be more effective at improving your ability to hear as a result.

How can AI help hearing aids work more effectively?

This may seem a bit abstract initially. After all, hearing aids seem to have a rather straightforward function. How can things be enhanced by adding AI to the mix? Well, imagine a recording studio with the soundboard loaded with switches and knobs. (Perhaps you’ve seen them in movies.) Your hearing aid contains one of those! (It’s tiny.) Better quality of sound can be attained by adjusting these settings. AI-powered hearing aids move these digital dials and switches automatically, improving the way you hear without any work by you.

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

This may sound like space-age science, but it’s the same fundamental technology that allows streaming services to suggest programming based on your viewing history. 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 adept at making correct choices the more you use them.

New improvements in AI hearing aids

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

• Helping you hear through facemasks: Conversations were certainly more difficult during the pandemic when everyone was wearing a facemask. AI algorithms can automatically amplify those voices behind the facemask, helping people with hearing aids hear better and stay safe simultaneously.
• Acoustic environment classification: Unique audio qualities come with each individual room you go into. Your hearing aids can deal with some of those properties, but others it can’t handle very well. With AI technology, your hearing aid can effortlessly make automatic corrections that allow you to hear better in almost any environment.
• Edge mode: This is a user activated, AI assist mode. Essentially, when you have a hard time hearing, you can activate something known as Edge Mode. This then initiates the AI algorithm and the algorithm will start working to make your hearing clearer.
• Noisy room filters: New AI algorithms can help to filter out room noise in a variety of loud or echo-prone locations. Cross talk, for instance, can often be hard on a hearing aid. But with an AI filtering out non-imperative information, you’ll be able to hear more clearly what the person across from you is saying, even in a crowded or noisy setting.

Hearing aid producers and scientists are continuously innovating new hearing aid technologies, so this may be just the beginning.

AI for the field of audiology

These days, AI has kind 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 applications. So in terms of the field of audiology, how does AI integrate.

Making hearing aids even more beneficial for patients is one of the first and most obvious things that researchers are working on. This research includes new technologies, like deep neural networks and machine learning. But hearing aids aren’t the whole story. Helping patients hear better and even diagnosing hearing loss are a couple of the things that AI will likely do in the future.

As the technology expands and becomes more dependable, patients can expect to find artificial intelligence in more of their devices.

The advantages of AI-assisted hearing aids

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

• Helping you listen to devices: Your hearing aid can get feedback from a wide variety of devices, like televisions, cell phones, speaker phones, and a range of other devices. Machine learning algorithms can help by filtering out this feedback, so all you will hear is the sound you actually want to hear.
• You have more control over how you hear: You can turn on 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 usually means a better all-around hearing experience.
• 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 the event of a severe fall, these hearing aids can, in some cases, alert the Authorities. Should you be drinking more water, exercising more, eating healthier? AI can make your health information easier to interpret.
• Social engagement: Studies have revealed that individuals who wear AI-assisted hearing aids are more successful in terms of managing their social engagement. The speech that they hear will be clearer in a wide array of settings, which most 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 maintain their relationships.

What this means for patients

For individuals who use AI-assisted hearing aids these benefits frequently translate into real-world advantages. Imagine you are having a discussion at a party. If you were using an older-style hearing aid, it would just crank the volume up. And unfortunately, background noise also gets boosted making it difficult to hear voices. An AI hearing aid is intelligent and will be capable of identifying and boosting a person’s voice while dulling undesired noise.

AI will create a location-by-location program to address the various kinds of sounds it detects. These algorithms help when you return to a particular location or sound profile. Other hearing aids with AI are programmed with everyday sounds in order to better define and amplify important sounds.

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

• Your quality of life will get better.
• You will feel less aggravated because you will be able to hear better.
• Your brain will experience a decreased cognitive load.

In other words, it’ll be simpler to hear your favorite shows, hang out with your favorite friends, and take care of your favorite brain.

Cost vs. reward

Because of the costs, AI wasn’t offered in the majority of hearing aids until recently. An algorithm is, in fact, a complex math equation. However, partially because of the prevalence of the technology, prices for AI hearing devices are beginning to go down.

That isn’t saying that those hearing aids will definitely come down in price soon and you still may wind up wanting a model that doesn’t have AI functionality. Clearly, 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.

Deciding what’s best for you

Hearing aids with AI might be overkill for somebody who lives by themselves and stays home a lot. To somebody who is socially active and finds themselves in situations with lots of competing sounds, however, it makes a big difference.

For someone who uses traditional hearing aids and still gets fatigued easily in social scenarios, AI hearing aids would be really helpful. AI-powered hearing aids decrease the listener’s exhaustion and make social situations more enjoyable. AI technology can also send alerts to your phone when the doorbell rings, alert others that you have fallen, and track your steps. Hearing aids will continue to improve as AI technology improves.

Want to find out how AI hearing aids can help you? Contact us to schedule an appointment!

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