AI and Hearing Aids – the Synergy

You might think of your favorite sci-fi movie when someone mentions artificial intelligence (AI). But today, AI is a reality that we all better get accustomed to. With regard to hearing aids, this is especially true. The times when hearing aids merely increased the volume and were one-size-fits-all are gone forever. Modern, high-end hearing aids utilize AI.

What is artificial intelligence?

AI is a type of technology that utilizes complex algorithms to produce new results from inputs of data. In doing this, AI algorithms take part in a kind of learning, aptly called “machine learning”. With AI the user doesn’t need to program every specific result because the algorithm does that by itself.

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

How does AI help hearing aids work more effectively?

This may seem a little abstract initially. After all, hearing aids seem to have a rather basic function. How can adding AI to the mix enhance things? Well, picture a recording studio with the soundboard full of switches and dials. (Perhaps you’ve seen them in movies.) Your hearing aid contains one of those! (It’s tiny.) Adjusting these settings can deliver better quality sound. With hearing aids that are powered by AI, these settings are adjusted automatically without requiring you to do anything.

These smart devices use a deep neural network to emulate human brain responses. As a result of this, these hearing aids respond in real-time to situations without being programmed to do so.

This may sound like space-age science, but it’s the same basic technology that allows streaming services to recommend programming according to your viewing history. AI is also found in cars and the emails auto-sorted into your inbox. These devices become more proficient at making appropriate decisions the more you use them.

AI hearing aids – new innovations

Presently, hearing aids are integrating multiple 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 properties. Your hearing aids can handle 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 almost any setting.
• Noisy room filters: If you’re in a location that has lots of echoes, or is extremely loud, new AI technology algorithms can filter out room noise. A hearing aid can have a hard time with cross-talk, for example. But with an AI filtering out non-essential information, you’ll be able to hear more clearly what the individual across from you is saying, even in a packed or noisy environment.
• Edge mode: This is a user initiated, AI assist mode. Basically, when you have a difficult time hearing, you can activate something known as Edge Mode. When this is triggered AI will start working on clearing up what you’re hearing.
• Helping you hear through facemasks: Conversations were certainly more difficult during the pandemic when everyone was wearing a facemask. You can remain safer and hear better simultaneously as AI algorithms can amplify the voice behind the facemask.

This is probably only the beginning of the developments scientists and manufacturers are making.

AI for the field of audiology

AI has become somewhat of a buzzword these days. Depending on the context, AI does different things, which can in some cases cause confusion. So, what does AI mean for the field of audiology?

Making hearing aids even more beneficial for patients is one of the first and most evident things that researchers are working on. New technologies, including machine learning and deep neural networks, are included in this research. But it’s not just hearing aids. Helping patients hear better and even diagnosing hearing loss are some things that AI will likely do in the future.

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

AI-assisted hearing aids and their benefits

Unlike some other industries, AI is not being incorporated into hearing aids just because it’s the hot new thing. Some significant advantages to patients are provided by these machine learning algorithms. Here are some of those benefits:

• Health tracking and fall prevention: If you accidentally fall while you’re wearing your hearing aids, your AI-assisted devices might be capable of detecting the significance and seriousness of your tumble. If there is a serious fall, these hearing aids can, in some situations, alert the Authorities. AI can also make your health information easier to interpret, helping you know when you should be moving more, eating better, or just hydrating more.
• Social engagement: With regard to dealing with social interaction, individuals who use AI-assisted hearing aids tend to be more successful, according to some research. The speech that they hear will be clearer in a wide variety 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 people who are already social better manage their relationships.
• You have more control over how you hear: Many AI-assisted hearing aids give you the option to turn off those algorithms. 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 range of other devices. Machine learning algorithms can help by filtering out this feedback, so all you will hear is the sound you really want to hear.

What this means for patients

These benefits frequently lead to real-world advantages for those who use these AI-assisted hearing aids. Imagine you are having a conversation at a party. If you had an older-style hearing aid, it would just boost the volume up. This isn’t helpful 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 dulling unwanted noise.

AI learns to identify sounds and creates a location-by-location algorithm. If you go back to a particular location or sound profile, AI can activate these programs. Other hearing aids with AI are programmed with everyday sounds in order to better define and amplify important sounds.

Some of the other practical advantages of AI-assisted hearing aids include the following:

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

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

There was a time when AI was not available in the vast majority of hearing aids due to the costs involved. After all, the device itself has to perform some intense calculations (an algorithm, of course, is essentially a very elegant math problem). However, in part because of the prevalence of the technology, prices for AI hearing devices are starting to go down.

This doesn’t mean that every hearing aid you want may have AI, or even that those hearing aids will necessarily be less pricey in the near future. Clearly, patients will still need to make important choices. But AI features are becoming more widely available and common.

Deciding what’s best for you

Hearing aids with AI may be too much for somebody who lives by themselves and stays home a lot. To somebody who is socially involved and finds themselves in conditions with many competing sounds, however, it makes a big difference.

Hearing aids with AI are also useful for somebody who is quickly worn out in social situations 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 exhausted with AI hearing aids. 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 see how AI hearing aids can help you? Call us to schedule an appointment!