Like lots of other devices, hearing aids are getting smarter all of the time. 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 sadly, loss of hearing, especially in older people, is extremely common. Roughly 37.5 million American adults say they have some hearing loss, and these numbers are increasing.
Luckily hearing technology has had some exciting breakthroughs recently that will offer more options for dealing with hearing loss. Here are just a few of the innovations coming our way.
Hearing Aids That Keep Track of Your Overall Health
Did you realize that hearing aids can track some key 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 issues, but it also tracks calories burned, heart rate, step count, and the total number of steps taken. They’re also developing technology that can evaluate other significant vital signs including blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. Hearing aids also often have other advantages, including the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will help your overall hearing so that your social life will get better also. Actually, social involvement is another metric we should pay attention to 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 music, you won’t even need a smartwatch or fitness device?
Streaming Made Simpler And More Intelligent
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 talking to these assistants is not your thing, Bluetooth hearing aids provide key advantages such as streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or maybe even streaming directly from a smart TV. Just consider 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 help you handle your hearing loss discreetly.
Automatic Adjustments
Ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what kind of book you like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of items get advertised to you by Amazon? This is the power of artificial intelligence and big data. The latest hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically according to your responses in the past. 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 recognizes 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 alert you of a potential loud noise danger nearby. Over time you will be able to adjust quickly to changes in the hearing environment because your hearing aid will make suggestions based on all the information it has gathered.
No More Tiny Batteries to Change.
Who wants to constantly struggle with hearing aid batteries? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. While you can do a lot to help extend the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, let’s be honest…it’s still irritating and costly. Even better, they are developing technology to recharge hearing aids without even needing to take them out.