Hearing Aids and Artificial Intelligence

According to recent statistics in the United States, about 30 million people in the United States above the ages of 15 have hearing loss in both ears. The previous statistics account for 12% of the population. If a person suffers from hearing the decline in their life, there is a physical adjustment that needs to be accepted. Also, the same person who suffers from hearing loss needs help in adjusting to a way of life that is at a disadvantage to society.

Challenges of hearing loss

The challenges of hearing loss need support to help them experience how society can help them during their time of adjustment. People with hearing loss often will turn in on themselves because they find it difficult to accept their physical disability. Since they cannot function like all other people in society, they may feel left out or not taken like everyone else. If they do not have a hearing aid, this may become a bigger problem for themselves. Lastly, depending upon what kind of economic background they have, they may feel they cannot afford to have earphones. Can earphones help?

The Place of earphones

Earphones are indeed crucial for anyone struggling with hearing loss. On the other hand, about 30% of people 60 and over who need hearing aids do not seek to obtain them. This is also the case of many people who find themselves in a low-income bracket who cannot afford earphones but also fail to look for government programs designed to help people to obtain earphones through state or government-funded programs.

Leading Technology and AI

Today the major earphone manufacturers are beginning to use AI to add more sophisticated algorithms to their already established earphone technology. The future of hearing aid advancement relies on AI to build an algorithm that helps machines to understand human needs and find a solution for them. This is one example that an AI program may face. A wearer of a hearing aid enters another location that he/she does not ordinarily go. When the wearer comes to this location, their settings on their hearing aid is set for a previous position with different acoustic properties. Will the wearer be able to use the adjustments they walked in with? If not, what can be done to help the wearer? Solved! A company called SoundSense Learn technology has solved this problem with its HearingTracker software. HearingTracker, using AI algorithms, is able to compare the two settings and automatically reset the user’s settings, which are still compatible with the user’s settings but adjusted to meet the existing acoustic space.

Conglomerates and AI

In a recent discovery by Google® Labs, an advanced breakthrough occurred, allowing hearing aid technology to advance. The Lab discovered a way to solve a longtime problem in acoustic engineering. A hearing aid can function properly only if the person hearing can filter out the unwanted noises in a room to those he is seeking to hear. Once the wanted sound the person is trying to understand is found and is detected by the hearing aid, then other sounds that surround the sound are filtered out of the mix, thereby allowing the person seeking the wanted music can engage in conversation. This is the solution Google® Labs found, and when integrated into an AI algorithm program in an earphone can make many people with hearing aid needs life better.

Further AI Development

Many other companies have developed AI programs that allow their users to stream radio or other media through their earphones. Earphones and AI now will enable a user to listen to a person speaking and transcribe up to 15 foreign languages, and all they would hear is their native language in the hearing. The AI program in the earphone will transcribe the foreign language understood by the person and give a transcribed message. Another use of AI recently added by the Starkey Manufacturer of Hearing Devices is directed toward helping a person live a healthier lifestyle. The hearing aid can measure how much they used their hearing aid; how much they have engaged in conversation as well as their physical activities to show how many steps they have stepped. At the end of each day, the hearing aid with AI input will derive a health number for each day used to lead a person to a healthier lifestyle.