Like many other devices, hearing aids are getting smarter all of the time. They’re also less conspicuous and more stylish than ever before. The U.S. census documents that the average American is older as the population as a whole ages, and sadly, hearing loss, particularly in older people, is really common. Approximately 37.5 million adults in America say they have some amount of hearing loss, and these numbers are going up.
Luckily more possibilities for treating loss of hearing are available due to exciting advancements in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements that are now available.
Hearing Aids That Keep Track of Your Overall Health
Hearing aids are as good if not better than a fitness tracker at keeping track of many vital signs. Not only can it track the time between heartbeats to help detect potential cardiovascular troubles, but it also monitors 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 benefits, including the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will improve also. Actually, social interaction is another metric we should look at 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 tunes, who needs a smartwatch or fitness device?
Smarter and Simpler Streaming
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 ignore the lure of talking directly to these assistants, hearing aids with Bluetooth permit you to stream sound from any Bluetooth device like your phone or smart TV. Just think of the benefits: You can avoid getting yelled at for having the Volume too loud while watching this year’s Big Game in a room full of screaming friends. 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 also 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 kind of books you enjoy reading? Or how all your favorite kinds of items get advertised to you by Amazon? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. New hearing aid technologies harness this type of intelligence and use it to make changes according to how you reacted 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 recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other situation with a lot of background noise). They are also beginning to network your hearing aids with other devices belonging to people near you in order to warn you of a potential 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 changes in the hearing environment.
What? No More Little 312 Batteries?
Who wants to constantly struggle 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 aggravating and expensive. Even better, they are working on technology that will recharge hearing aids without even needing to take them out.