Hearable Feature – Hearing Assistance

Hearables and smart earbuds have been out for a few years now but a new buzz term is emerging – Hearing Assistance.  This refers to new smart earbuds that are breaking new ground and are between a headphone and a hearing aid.  They aren’t designed to be a hearing aid or compete in the hearing aid space, but they are more than just regular earbuds or headphones to listen to music.

They offer a few features that help you hear better such as noise cancelling, audio customization and sound amplification, which are features you do find in a hearing aid but in this case you control the settings, not the audiologist.

Noise Cancellation

What is it? How Does It Work?

Noise cancellation is becoming a more well-known feature as it’s starting to be included in top end earbuds, headphones and headsets.  This technology typically uses a microphone to assess outside noise and either filter out (or cancel) certain noises which makes hearing what you are supposed to be hearing more clear.  The best analogy is if you are in a crowded restaurant,  with hundreds of conversations going on and you are trying to hear just one and focus on that one conversation it’s hard but imagine if all that background noise were suddenly removed or at the very least dimmed.  The person or people you are talking to become much more clear.

Audio Customization

What is it? How Does It Work?

Audio customization varies from device to device but Nuheara, Alango and Audeara all offer some sort of audio customization and it involves an app you download to your smartphone and sync with your smart earbud.  Usually, at the start, the app will perform a hearing assessment and understand what frequencies you have difficulty hearing and it then improves those frequencies.   You will hear music in a way you haven’t heard in years!  This also impacts phone calls and the next point, audio amplification.

Sound Amplification

What is it? How Does It Work?

Once you have a hearing assessment and customization has been performed the smart earbuds or headset can now work to amplify the sounds around you and specifically for your needs.  This will work for music, calls and in-person conversations.  Combine this with the noise cancelling feature and hearing in crowded spaces and loud environments just changed instantly for you.  This feature mimics what could be found in base models of hearing aids and the best part is you can control features and amplification from the app so if you aren’t happy with how it sounds you have control to change it.

Who Is Best Suited for Hearing Assistance?

It’s great for those that struggle with a low level of hearing loss that doesn’t quite need a hearing aid just yet but struggles to hear in day to day scenarios.  Or for those who might hear fine in quiet situations but struggle once there is any kind of background noise then the noise cancelling technology backed by the sound amplification will improve your ability to hear in these situations.

For those that don’t struggle to hear the technology still creates an amazing sound experience for music especially but you end up with clearer calls and audio in general because of the quality of the equipment but also the power of the technology and programming.