Like many other devices, hearing aids are getting more intuitive every day. They’re also more inconspicuous and cooler than they ever have been. The average American is older, reports The Us Census Department, as the whole population gets older, and loss of hearing is, sadly, really common, particularly in older adults. Roughly 37.5 million American adults and rising say they have some degree of hearing loss.
Fortunately more choices for treating hearing loss are available because of amazing developments 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
Did you realize that hearing aids can keep track of several important vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it track the time in between heartbeats to help find potential cardiovascular problems, 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 measure other significant vital signs including blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. Hearing aids also often have other advantages, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help you hear generally so that your social life will improve as well. Actually, social involvement is another statistic we should look at because it has been linked 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 More Intelligent
As we get addicted to virtual assistants including Alexa and Siri, staying connected and able to communicate with them is becoming more important. Even if talking to these assistants is not your thing, hearing aids with Bluetooth give key advantages including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or maybe even streaming directly from your smart TV. Imagine the benefits of this: You can avoid getting yelled at for having the Volume too loud while watching this year’s Big Game in a room full of loud friends. 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 handle your hearing loss discreetly.
Automatic Adjustments
Have you noticed that you get ads from Goodreads and they seem to know what type of books you like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of things get promoted to you by Amazon? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Modern hearing aids harness this kind of intelligence and use it to make changes based on your past reactions. It will notice how you prefer to turn the volume down 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 a lot of background noise). They are also starting to network your hearing aids with other devices that belong to people near you in order to alert you of a potential loud noise danger nearby. Over time the hearing aids add up all this information to make suggestions and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to changes in the hearing environment.
You Won’t Have to Keep Changing Those Tiny 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, let’s be honest…it’s still pricey and irritating. Even better, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.