Like many other devices, hearing aids are getting smarter 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 hearing loss is, sadly, very common, particularly in older adults. Roughly 37.5 million adults in America and rising say they have some amount of hearing loss.
Luckily more options for dealing with hearing loss are available due to exciting developments in recent hearing technology. Here are just a few of the enhancements that are now available.
Your Overall Health Can be Tracked by Your Hearing Aids
Did you know that hearing aids can track some key 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’re also working on technology that can evaluate other important vital signs like blood pressure and oxygenation of the blood. There are other potential advantages that come with hearing aids, like the ability to help drown out tinnitus and will enhance your social life by bettering your overall hearing. Actually, social interaction is another metric we should pay attention to 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 music.
Streaming Made Simpler And Smarter
Staying 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 using these assistants is not your thing, hearing aids that have Bluetooth provide key advantages including streaming music directly from a smart device like your phone or even streaming directly from a smart TV. Just think of the advantages: You can steer clear of getting yelled at for having the Volume too loud while watching this year’s Big Game in a room full of screaming friends. You will be able to manage your hearing loss more discreetly and also appreciate your shows, phone calls, and music more by hearing them directly in your ears.
Automatic Adjustments
Ever notice how Goodreads seems to know what type of book you’d like to read? Or how all your favorite kinds of things get promoted to you by Amazon? That’s because big data and artificial intelligence are very powerful. The latest hearing aids can also make adjustments automatically according to your responses in the past. For instance, if you lowered the volume the last time you visited the train station, your hearing aid will recall that and turn itself down the next time you go into the train station. They are expanding this technology to include crowdsourcing as well, allowing information from other people to inform your hearing aids that you’re entering a loud zone. Over time the hearing aids analyze all this information to make recommendations and automatic corrections, so you can adjust quickly to variations in the hearing environment.
You Won’t Need to Keep Changing Those Little Batteries
Who wants to continuously struggle with hearing aid batteries? You can now get rechargeable hearing aids. While you can do a lot to help increase the life of your hearing aids’ batteries, truth be told…it’s still frustrating and costly. Better yet, they are developing technology that will recharge hearing aids without even having to take them out.