Like lots of other devices, hearing aids are getting more intuitive every day. They’re also less conspicuous and cooler than they ever have been. The U.S. census documents that the average American is older as the population as a whole ages, and sadly, loss of hearing, particularly in older people, is very common. Approximately 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some level of hearing loss.
The good news is hearing technology has had some exciting advancements recently that will offer more possibilities for treating hearing loss. Here are just a few of the enhancements coming our way.
Your Overall Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at keeping track of several vital signs. Not only can it track the time between heartbeats to help find potential cardiovascular problems, but it also monitors calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They’re also developing technology that can measure other significant vital signs like blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. There are other possible advantages that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help you hear generally so that your social life will improve as well. Actually, social engagement has been connected to your overall health also, so actually it’s another health metric we should be following. Since hearing aids can now also sync with your smartphone so you can listen to your music, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?
Streaming Made Smarter And Simpler
As we become more dependant on virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri, staying connected and able to communicate with them is getting more important. Even if you ignore the enticement of talking directly to these assistants, Bluetooth hearing aids offer key advantages including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or even streaming directly from your smart TV. Consider the advantages of this: You can steer clear of getting yelled at for having the Volume too loud while watching this year’s Super Bowl in a room full of screaming friends. You will be capable of managing your hearing loss more discreetly and also appreciate your shows, phone calls, and music more by having them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to already know what type of books you enjoy reading? Or how Amazon somehow know which products to suggest? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Modern hearing aids harness this kind of intelligence and use it to make changes according to how you reacted in the past. For instance, if you lowered the volume the last time you went to the train station, your hearing aid will recall that and turn itself down the next time you visit the train station. They are expanding this technology to include crowdsourcing also, enabling information from other users to notify your hearing aids that you’re entering a loud zone. Over time the hearing aids add up all this information to make recommendations and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to changes in the hearing environment.
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 extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, truth be told…it’s still annoying and pricey. What’s better, they are developing technology to recharge hearing aids without even having to take them out of your ears.