Life in Los Angeles can be hectic (and we wouldn’t want it any other way!). If you wear hearing aids, you want to be sure that they work as hard as you do, rather than slow you down. The good news is that hearing aids are more advanced than ever before, meaning that they don’t just help you hear; they enhance your life and keep you connected, even in the busy LA grind.
Smart Hearing Aids and Digital Signal Processing
Until quite recently, all hearing aids were analog: they picked up sound waves in a microphone and amplified them into the speaker in your ear. Now, we have smart hearing aids, or digital hearing aids. These smart devices pick up sound waves in a microphone, and then they convert those sound waves into digital signals and use a computer processor to process the sound automatically.
During digital signal processing (DSP), your hearing aids will, among other things, categorize types of sound (background noise, speech, etc.) and determine which sounds should be amplified, deemphasized or suppressed entirely. In this way, your hearing aids act much like your brain’s auditory processing center, which takes a load off your brain.
How to Use Digital Signal Processing
If the above just sounds like technical jargon to you, let’s discuss how DSP would look in daily life. Suppose you’re attending a social event for work at a trendy, crowded restaurant. Analog hearing aids would pick up all sounds around you indiscriminately and transmit them straight into your ear. You may be able to adjust some tones and frequencies, but you’re still receiving a large amount of sound information, which can make it harder to hear what you need to hear.
Digital hearing aids, on the other hand, would smoothly work to identify background noise, such as silverware clattering, distant conversations or the footsteps of harried waitstaff, and filter them out. They would also identify speech sounds, even going so far as to sort different voices from each other, and emphasize speech into your ear, so you won’t miss a word. DSP is also invaluable for feedback control, as it can catch it before it’s amplified back into your ear.
Other Features of Smart Hearing Aids
In addition to revolutionizing the way hearing aids deliver sound to you, smart hearing aids come with a myriad of high-end features that enhance your hearing, health and overall lifestyle. Some of these include:
- AI sound processing, which takes DSP a step further and learns your listening patterns and preferences, allowing them to adjust to your listening environment automatically and seamlessly.
- Smartphone apps that enable you to manually adjust your hearing aid settings (if necessary) on your smartphone, rather than fiddling with a dial on your earpiece.
- Better designs, because some of the most important innovations in hearing aids aren’t about hearing; enhancements of battery life, device memory and overall durability and weatherproofing.
- Bluetooth® connectivity, which can wirelessly connect your hearing aids to any other electronic device, meaning you can stream audio from your phone or other devices straight to your hearing aids. This is perfect for taking a call in the middle of the day.
How Smart Hearing Aids Can Work for You
If you’re interested in learning more about smart hearing aids and DSP and want to know how you can benefit from these technologies, contact The House Institute to discuss more. We’re happy to walk you through cutting-edge features.