Hearing aids are becoming more technologically advanced and this model includes sensors that detect movement.
World is not only advancing in terms of the maximum age that is reached in a healthy way, but it also has an increasingly higher average age , due to the increasingly lower birth rate.
That is why there are more and more products designed for people of a certain age, especially those related to certain physical problems that may arise from a certain point in time. A good example of this is deafness and, as with sight, this sense can be impaired, causing people to have difficulty hearing in certain cases, which introduces additional barriers in communicating with others .
That is why hearing aids , headphones designed to improve the hearing ability of people with problems of this type, are becoming more and more common . They are not a particularly new device since they have been with us for decades, but there are new developments in terms of their functions and capabilities. In fact, even Apple seems to be thinking about entering this sector, but not by launching a new product, but by making its popular AirPods can serve as headphones .
An example is the Oticon Intent , a smart hearing device that adapts to each user and, above all, the environment around them. Using sensors that are usually found in devices such as smartphones, this smart hearing aid can improve the hearing ability of the elderly in a personalized way.
How is it different
One of the biggest differences of this hearing aid compared to the competition is the use of sensors to understand certain actions of the user and their environment and adapt the sound amplification to this. The integrated sensors allow us to know the gestures made by the person wearing them, to identify the sound sources that are priority, and also allow us to understand the noise in the environment, to enhance certain frequencies and not all.
The Oticon Intent analyzes the movement of the head, the conversation that occurs around the person wearing it and uses artificial intelligence to recognize and process sounds of all kinds . In fact, it has been trained with more than twelve million real sound scenes to have a database with which to create this AI.
The sensors collect details of the environment in 360º around the listener. Other sensors, head movement sensors, monitor whether the user moves their head to understand the type of communication situation, in addition to said movements. Other sensors are capable of detecting whether the body itself moves.
The MoreSound Amplifier 3.0 system allows amplification over a frequency range that goes from 80 Hz to 10,000 Hz. In addition, it is possible to amplify only the sounds that the system detects are important at all times , avoiding the problem of amplify everything.
An important app
Another key function of this hearing aid is its mobile application, available for both Android and iOS . From there it is possible to adjust the volume of the hearing aid or change the specific sound program that has been chosen. In addition, it allows you to monitor the battery of both hearing aids, or even adjust the volume of high, medium or low sounds in the environment using an equalizer.
You can also activate SpeechBooster mode from the app, which reduces background noise and improves speech sound pickup . This is especially useful in noisy environments. By having Bluetooth connectivity, these hearing aids can not only be connected to your mobile phone, but also to other devices such as television adapters or devices such as Oticon EduMic or ConnectClip.
High-end headphones
The price of this device is one of the barriers to entry as it is very high. A pair of Oticon Intent costs between 2,000 and 2,500 euros depending on the store and the available offer. There are nine different colors for the case that goes behind the ear, but both the earpiece and the connection cable are transparent, to attract as little attention as possible.
It is for this reason that more and more companies are trying to create devices that serve as an alternative to hearing aids, some of which are developed in Spain . Other options such as cochlear implants have been designed for a much more specific type of patient, and it is an alternative that involves medical intervention.
