Like lots of other devices, hearing aids are getting smarter every day. They’re also less conspicuous and more stylish than they ever have been. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the whole population gets older, and hearing loss is, unfortunately, extremely common, particularly in older adults. Approximately 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some level of hearing loss.
Luckily hearing technology has had some amazing developments recently that will offer more options for treating loss of hearing. Some of the inventions now available are presented here.
Your Overall Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Did you know that hearing aids can track some key vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it keep track of step count, how many calories were burned, the total number of steps you took and heart rate, it also monitors the time in between heartbeats to help detect any cardiovascular issues. They’re also working on technology that can measure other important vital signs such as blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. There are other potential advantages that come with hearing aids, including the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will enhance your social life by helping your general hearing. Actually, social interaction is another metric we should pay attention to because it has been connected to your general 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 your tunes.
Streaming Made Simpler And Smarter
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 lure of talking directly to these assistants, Bluetooth hearing aids permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device like your phone or smart TV. Consider the benefits of this: You could hear the play-by-play in the big game clearly over your family’s cheers (or at least avoid getting yelled at for turning the volume too loud). You will be able to manage your hearing loss more inconspicuously and also enjoy your shows, phone calls, and music more by hearing them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Did you ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what kind of book you’d like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of things 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 reactions in the past. It will remember that you turn down the volume when you enter the train station and do that automatically the next time it detects you’ve entered the station (or any other circumstance with to much background noise). They are also beginning to network your hearing aids with other devices belonging to people near you in order to inform you of a possible loud noise danger nearby. Over time the hearing aids analyze all this information to make recommendations and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment.
What? No More Little 312 Batteries?
Who wants to continuously struggle with hearing aid batteries? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. While you can do a lot to help increase the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s face it…it’s still annoying and costly. Better yet, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.