Like many other devices, hearing aids are getting more intuitive all of the time. They’re also less conspicuous and cooler than they ever have been. The U.S. census reports that the average American is older as the whole population gets older, and unfortunately, hearing loss, particularly in older people, is very common. Roughly 37.5 million adults in America say they have some hearing loss, and these numbers are increasing.
Luckily hearing technology has had some amazing developments recently that will offer more solutions for dealing with loss of hearing. A few of the innovations now available are presented here.
Your General Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Did you know that hearing aids can keep track of some important vital signs as well or better than a fitness tracker? Not only can it track the time between heartbeats to help detect potential cardiovascular issues, but it also tracks calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They are even developing technology that can measure blood pressure, oxygenation of the blood and other important vital signs. Hearing aids also often have other pluses, including 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 involvement has been connected to your general health as well, so actually it’s another health metric we should be following. 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 music.
Smarter and Simpler Streaming
Staying connected to your virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa is becoming more important as people get more attached to these features. Even if you ignore the enticement of talking directly to these assistants, Bluetooth hearing aids offer key advantages including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or maybe even streaming directly from your smart TV. Just consider the advantages: You could hear the play-by-play in the big game clearly over your family’s cheers (or at least steer clear of getting yelled at for turning the volume too high). You will be able to manage your hearing loss more discreetly and also appreciate your music, phone calls, and shows more by having them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Did you ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what type of book you’d like to read? Or how Amazon somehow know which items to suggest? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. Modern hearing aids can also make changes automatically based on your reactions in the past. It will remember that you turn down the volume when you go into the train station and do that automatically the next time it recognizes you’ve entered the station (or any other circumstance with a lot of background noise). They are also beginning to network your hearing aids with other devices that belong to people near you in order to warn you of a potential loud noise danger nearby. Over time you will be able to adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make recommendations based on all the information it has gathered.
What? No More Little 312 Batteries?
Why would you want to constantly 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 pricey and annoying. Even better, technology to recharge your hearing aids while they are still in your ears is being developed.