Peter studied hearing aid fitting at the world headquarters of Starkey Labs. He was able to have hands on training with the company’s founder, Bill Austin. He has also undergone advanced training in the smallest, nearly invisible style hearing aids, and has expanded his education by traveling to Denmark to learn directly from European hearing aid manufacturers. He continues to attend conferences and training seminars to stay current on the rapidly evolving world of hearing aid technology.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) used to seem like only part of sci-fi fantasy stories. This technology seemed to drive robots that flew through the galaxy and had endless and precise information to share. Slowly AI is becoming part of our everyday life. While most of us don’t live with human-like robots, our smartphones, our Internet use and even cars are using AI to make our lives easier even if we don’t realize it. One area where AI is appearing more and more frequently is for those who use hearing aids. The newest hearing aids are incorporating AI and machine learning into hearing aids to help make the listening experience effortless and adaptable.
Automatically Adjusts to Your Environment
The newest innovations aim to make your life with hearing aids as effortless as possible. This is when AI and machine learning help to adjust to the different environments in your life. Using geo-tagging your hearing aids can tell where you are and memorize your listening preferences for your frequently visited environments. Your hearing aids use machine learning to automatically adjust, to accommodate the sound of an open window while driving, a noisy office space or a quiet night at home without having to manually adjust your device. If you play music with others or attend a concert or place of worship, using AI equipped hearing aids can adjust automatically, allowing you to be able to focus on the things you love to do instead of dealing with your hearing aids.
Hearing Aids that Track Your Health
The ease in which you hear using hearing aids does not only improve your hearing health but every aspect of your wellbeing. Hearing aids can help to lower your risk of dementia, diabetes, heart disease, depression and more. Some of the latest models of hearing aids use AI to track your health. The Livio AI from Starkey uses the Thrive app to monitor brain and body health. Using sensors your activity levels are recorded much like when using a fitness tracker commonly worn on the wrist. However recording movement from the ears vs. the wrist can be much more accurate. Meanwhile AI algorithms track brain health by measuring the length in which people are actively listening, how often and in which environments hearing aids are worn.
Bluetooth Technology
The newest innovations in hearing aid technology allow you to stream your phone conversations, music, podcast, GPS and more directly into your hearing aids. This minimizes feedback and removes the need to struggle to hear the TV while others around you prefer to listen at different levels. AI allows your hearing aids to remember your listen preferences for the different devices in your life connecting them automatically.
Real-time Foreign Language Translation
One of the most amazing advancements in AI technology is the ability to translate 27 foreign language phrases directly to your hearing aids. Listening in foreign languages can be an extra challenge for people who struggle with hearing loss, so this feature adds some much needed relief.
Automatic Alerts
For those of you concerned with your loved one’s health, AI hearing aids are offering alerts to monitor the safety of hearing aid users. This is particularly helpful for people who care for seniors with hearing loss. For instance, the Livio AI hearing aids can detect if the wearer has a fall. Starkey’s UK tech director Paul Lamb clarifies “The sensor is made up of two elements: an accelerator and gyroscope, so it is understanding if you are upright or are falling. The artificial intelligence in the hearing aid system can work out if someone has fallen over…or if they have dropped the hearing aid on the floor.” When someone falls the device will count down to 60 seconds before sending an alert to a caretaker about a possible fall. The sooner we can react to falls the better the chance for recovery.
The Future of Hearing Aids
Hearing aids only continue to improve and make your life easier. Contact us at Hearing Aid Specialists of the Central Coast to find out more about your options for hearing aids using AI. Let us help you step into the future of hearing aids so you can focus on the things you love to do.