Hearing aids, as with lots of other devices, are getting smarter, more inconspicuous and cooler all the time, and just in time. The U.S. census reports that the average American is older as the whole population gets older, and sadly, loss of hearing, particularly in older people, is very common. Roughly 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some amount of hearing loss.
Luckily more possibilities for treating hearing loss are available because of amazing developments in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the developments coming our way.
Your General Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are equal to if not better than a fitness tracker at keeping track of 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 in between heartbeats to help find any cardiovascular worries. They are even developing technology that can determine blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other important vital signs. Hearing aids also often have other advantages, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will get better as well. Actually, social interaction is another statistic we should pay attention to because it has been connected to your overall health. 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 music.
Streaming Made More Intelligent And Easier
As we get addicted to virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri, staying connected and able to communicate with them is becoming more important. Even if using these assistants is not your thing, Bluetooth hearing aids permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device such as your smart TV or phone. Just consider the benefits: You could hear the play-by-play in the big game clearly over your family’s fun (or at least steer clear of getting yelled at for turning the volume too high). Being able to directly stream phone calls, music, shows and more right to your ears not only helps you hear and enjoy them more, but it will also help you manage your hearing loss inconspicuously.
Automatic Adjustments
Ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what type of book you’d like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of things get advertised to you by Amazon? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. Current hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically according to your responses in the past. It will notice how you prefer to turn the volume down when you enter the train station and do that automatically the next time it recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other circumstance with a lot of background noise). They are extending this technology to include crowdsourcing also, 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 variations in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make suggestions based on all the information it has gathered.
You Won’t Need to Keep Changing Those Tiny Batteries
Who wants to constantly wrestle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are currently available. Even though you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still frustrating and pricey. What’s better, they are working on technology to recharge hearing aids without even having to take them out.