Hearing aids, as with many other devices, are getting smarter, less conspicuous and more stylish all the time, and just in time. The U.S. census reports that the average American is older as the population as a whole continues to age, and sadly, hearing loss, especially in older people, is extremely common. Roughly 37.5 million adults in America and rising say they have some level of hearing loss.
Fortunately hearing technology has had some exciting advancements recently that will provide more options for treating hearing loss. A few of the advancements coming our way are presented here.
Your General Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Did you realize that hearing aids can keep track of several key vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it track the time in between heartbeats to help find potential cardiovascular concerns, but it also tracks calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They are even working on technology that can determine blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other significant vital signs. Hearing aids also often have other pluses, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will improve as well. Actually, social involvement is another metric we should pay attention to because it has been linked 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.
Smarter and Easier Streaming
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 talking to these assistants is not your thing, hearing aids with Bluetooth permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device such as your smart TV or phone. Just consider the advantages: You could hear the analysts in the next Super Bowl clearly over your family’s fun (or at least avoid getting yelled at for having 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 help you regulate 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 items get promoted to you by Amazon? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. Modern hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically based on your responses in the past. For example, if you lowered the volume the last time you went to the train station, your hearing aid will remember that and turn itself down the next time you visit the train station. They are extending this technology to include crowdsourcing also, enabling information from other people to notify your hearing aids that you’re approaching a loud zone. Over time the hearing aids add up all this information to make suggestions and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment.
No More Little Batteries to Replace.
Who wants to continuously wrestle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are currently available. While you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still irritating and pricey. Better yet, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.