Hearing aids, like lots of other devices, are getting smarter, less conspicuous and cooler all the time, and just in time. The U.S. census reports that the average American is older as the population as a whole ages, and hearing loss is, unfortunately, extremely common, particularly in older adults. About 37.5 million adults in America and rising say they have some amount of hearing loss.
Fortunately more options for treating loss of hearing are available because of amazing advancements in recent hearing technology. A few of the inventions coming our way are presented here.
Your Overall Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at tracking several vital signs. Not only can it track step count, how many calories were burned, the total number of steps you took and heart rate, it also monitors the time between heartbeats to help detect any cardiovascular concerns. They are even working on technology that can determine blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other relevant vital signs. There are other potential benefits that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will enhance your social life by helping your general hearing. Actually, social engagement has been connected to your overall health as well, so really it’s another health metric we should be looking at. With these new hearing aids, you won’t even need a fitness device or smartwatch because the hearing aids can sync to your smartphone so you can listen to your tunes.
Simpler And Smarter Streaming
Being connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is getting to be more important as people get more attached to these features. Even if using these assistants is not your thing, hearing aids with Bluetooth permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device including your phone or smart TV. Just consider the advantages: You could hear the analysts in the next Super Bowl clearly over your family’s cheers (or at least avoid getting yelled at for having the volume too high). Being able to directly stream music, phone calls, shows and more right to your ears not only helps you hear and enjoy them more, but it will help you handle your hearing loss discreetly.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to know what kind of books you like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of things get promoted to you by Amazon? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Modern hearing aids harness this type of intelligence and use it to make adjustments according to how you reacted in the past. For example, if you lowered the volume the last time you visited the train station, your hearing aid will remember that and turn itself down the next time you visit the train station. They are extending this technology to include crowdsourcing as well, enabling information from other users to inform your hearing aids that you’re approaching a loud zone. Over time you will be able to quickly adjust to changes in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make suggestions based on all the information it has collected.
What? No More Tiny 312 Batteries?
Who wants to constantly wrestle with hearing aid batteries? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. While you can do a lot to help increase the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still irritating and expensive. Better still, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.