Life is full of struggles. And the battle can hugely enhance if one of your senses faces any difficulties. According to WHO, more than 450 million people around the world are cursed with hearing impairment. To help people with hearing problems, hearing aids were invented. Within ages, they have changed a lot. However, there is still room for upgrading. With the evolution of technology, the scopes are limitless. In the following article, we are going to talk about some future possibilities of the hearing aid enterprise.
The Past Evolution
The former hearing aids were mostly analog. One had to wear a transmitter in the body that contained the loudspeaker. This loudspeaker received the soundwaves and analogously converted them to electromagnetic waves that the brain could understand. They were pretty huge and less handy. Even the machine would misbehave in changing situations. In the later 20th century, the technology got better, and a significant change was seen. The hearing aids stepped into the digital era at that time. With this, the size significantly decreased. Rather than bodywear, the hearing aids started to only stay in the ears. And some of them can keep themselves hidden within the canal of the ear. Also, the analog hearing aids only made the sounds louder, but new digital headphones can be fine-tuned according to the user’s need. But that’s not where the development ends. It has continuously been under development, and various companies are working day and night to associate the latest technology to improve hearing aids.
Prospective Future Developments
The hearing aids have already been connected with smartphones for ease of access. But the development continues. Here are some features that we can observe in hearing aids in the near future.
Wireless Connectivity
Although many of the hearing aids found today are wireless, the technology is continuously changing. The next goal is to incorporate the hearing aids with various electronic devices, like TVs, phones, or computers. That way, patients with hearing difficulties can listen to them without raising sound. Moreover, there’s an ongoing process to turn hearing aids into remote control devices. That can make the life of older users much easier. Another park of the wireless hearing aid is it can be adjusted remotely. That way, the patients will be able to contact their audiologists from their homes and can get their devices adapted.
Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence
Recently, AI technology has been perfected greatly. When AI would be incorporated with a hearing aid, it’ll present more personalized testing and fitting as per the user. It’ll not only mimic the natural human hearing but also make advanced hearing possible. In addition to voice recognition, clearer sound processing will reach further than these features.
With AI’s help, hearing aid technology can be optimized to each person’s unique type, degree, and hearing loss pattern. That will result in better hearing as well as healing
There have already been experiments that would help a user to translate language through his hearing aid. It has helped a lot of travelers. The researchers are trying to perfect this technology to its finest.
The old hearing aid devices, even some new appliances, struggle to give the user optimum hearing in crowded places. Often the background noises create severe disturbance as they cannot automatically adjust to the surrounding. With an AI operator, these noises can be canceled quickly. The AI will gather data, and eventually, it’ll learn to assist you to give the best hearing experience possible.
Functionality
It is expected that the hearing aid will be developed both in technology and functionality. While serving as a hearing enhancing device, it’ll also be able to take on other tasks. It could take upon the work of a fitness watch. Tracking the physical activity, brain function, detecting organ failure or malfunction could be a secondary task for the devices. Moreover, it can be equipped with a signaling function to get instant help from the first responders in case of an emergency.
Many of the users are now turning their hearing aids into fashion statements. They often feel more confident in fashionable earpieces rather than plain ones. So in the future, we’ll see more astonishing types of hearing aids.
Improvements in Battery
Many hearing aids face the problem of decaying battery life. Recently, there have been many experiments with this, and rechargeable batteries are preferred mostly. In the near future, we may get solar power batteries.
Hearing is a gift of nature. So when it is disrupted, our everyday lives get significantly hard. But thanks to hearing aids, we have a certain way to overcome this difficulty. And the future is showing promising opportunities in this manner. So, rather than being afraid of hearing loss, we can take advantage of hearing aid technology’s future advancement.
