Hearing aids, like many other devices, are getting smarter, more inconspicuous and more stylish every day, and just in time. The U.S. census documents that the average American is older as the whole population gets older, and sadly, hearing loss, especially in older people, is really common. Roughly 37.5 million American adults say they have some amount of hearing loss, and these numbers are rising.
Fortunately more choices for dealing with hearing loss are available due to amazing advancements in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements coming our way.
Your General Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at keeping track of several vital signs. Not only can it track step count, how many calories were burned, the total number of steps you took and heart rate, it also monitors the time between heartbeats to help find any cardiovascular issues. They’re also working on technology that can measure other important vital signs including blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. Hearing aids also often have other pluses, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help you hear generally so that your social life will improve also. Actually, social interaction is another metric we should pay attention to 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, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?
Streaming Made Easier And Smarter
Staying connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is becoming more important as people get more addicted to these features. Even if you resist the enticement of talking directly to these assistants, hearing aids with Bluetooth give key features including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or maybe even streaming directly from your smart TV. Imagine the advantages of this: You could hear the play-by-play in the next Super Bowl clearly over your family’s cheers (or at least steer clear of getting yelled at for turning the volume too loud). You will be able to manage your hearing loss more inconspicuously and also appreciate your music, phone calls, and shows more by hearing them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to know what kind of books you enjoy reading? Or how Amazon somehow know which products to recommend? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. Modern hearing aids can also make changes automatically according to your reactions in the past. For instance, if you lowered the volume the last time you visited 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 as well, allowing information from other people to inform your hearing aids that you’re entering a loud zone. Over time you will be able to adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make suggestions 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? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. Even though you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, truth be told…it’s still irritating and pricey. What’s better, they are developing technology that will recharge hearing aids without even needing to take them out.
