Like lots of other devices, hearing aids are getting more intuitive every day. They’re also more inconspicuous and more stylish than they ever have been. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the population as a whole continues to age, and unfortunately, loss of hearing, particularly in older people, is extremely common. About 37.5 million American adults say they have some hearing loss, and these numbers are rising.
Luckily more choices for treating hearing loss are available because of amazing developments in recent hearing technology. A few of the innovations coming our way are presented here.
Your General Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Did you know that hearing aids can track some important vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it track the time between heartbeats to help detect potential cardiovascular problems, but it also monitors calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They are even developing technology that can measure blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other important vital signs. There are other possible advantages that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will enhance your social life by helping your overall hearing. Actually, social involvement is another metric we should look at because it has been connected to your general health. Since hearing aids can now also sync with your smartphone so you can listen to your songs, you won’t even need a smartwatch or fitness device?
Streaming Made Easier And More Intelligent
Staying connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is getting to be more important as people get more addicted to these features. Even if using these assistants is not your thing, Bluetooth hearing aids allow you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device including your smart TV or phone. Consider the benefits of this: You could hear the analysts in the next Super Bowl clearly over your family’s fun (or at least avoid 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 appreciate them more, but it will help you handle your hearing loss discreetly.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to already know what type of books you like to read? Or how Amazon somehow know which items to suggest? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. New hearing aid technologies harness this kind of intelligence and use it to make changes according to your past reactions. For example, if you turned down the volume the last time you went to the train station, your hearing aid will recall that and turn itself down the next time you go into the train station. They are extending this technology to include crowdsourcing as well, enabling information from other users to notify your hearing aids that you’re approaching a loud zone. Over time you will be able to quickly adjust to changes in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make recommendations based on all the information it has gathered.
What? No More Little 312 Batteries?
Why would you want to continuously wrestle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are now available. While you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s be honest…it’s still irritating and pricey. Better yet, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.