Hearing aids, like many other devices, are getting smarter, more inconspicuous and more stylish every day, and just in time. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the whole population gets older, and hearing loss is, unfortunately, extremely common, especially in older adults. About 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some level of hearing loss.
Fortunately more possibilities for dealing with hearing loss are available because of exciting advancements in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements coming our way.
Your Overall Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are equal to if not better than a fitness tracker at keeping track of several vital signs. Not only can it monitor the time in between heartbeats to help detect potential cardiovascular concerns, but it also tracks calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They’re also working on technology that can assess other important vital signs including blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. There are other potential advantages that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will get better as well. Actually, social interaction is another metric we should pay attention to because it has been connected to your overall health. Since hearing aids can now also sync with your smartphone so you can listen to your songs, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?
Simpler And Smarter Streaming
Being 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 you defy the allure of talking directly to these assistants, hearing aids with Bluetooth provide key features such as streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or maybe even streaming directly from a smart TV. Just consider the benefits: You could hear the analysts in the next Super Bowl clearly over your family’s fun (or at least steer clear of getting yelled at for having the volume too loud). Being able to directly stream music, phone calls, shows and more right to your ears not only helps you hear and appreciate them more, but it will also help you manage your hearing loss inconspicuously.
Automatic Adjustments
Did you ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what kind of book you like to read? Or how Amazon seems to know which products to suggest? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Current hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically according to your responses in the past. It will notice how you prefer to turn down the volume when you enter the train station and do that automatically the next time it recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other circumstance with to much background noise). They are expanding this technology to include crowdsourcing also, enabling information from other people to inform your hearing aids that you’re approaching a loud zone. Over time you can adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make recommendations based on all the information it has collected.
You Won’t Need to Keep Changing Those Little Batteries
Who wants to constantly wrestle with hearing aid batteries? Rechargeable hearing aids are now on the market. While you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, truth be told…it’s still costly and irritating. Better yet, they are working on technology to recharge hearing aids without even needing to take them out.