PROGRAMMABLE OR DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN HEARING AIDS

What is the latest technique in hearing - aids?

These hearing - aids work on the digital technology.

What is the difference between the conventional and the digitally programmed hearing - aids?

Programmable hearing - aids are far more advanced that the conventional types. These types of hearing - aids incorporate integrated circuits with a memory chip that can store necessary information. Unlike conventional types, these hearing - aids can be modified with the help of a software fed into a computer. Thus the number of parameters that can be altered are relatively more in programmable hearing - aid.

What are digital hearing - aids?

In a digital hearing - aid, the incoming signals are converted to digital signals. This "digitalization" makes its possible to precisely analyze & filter the signals. The signals can be processed in one or more frequency channels. At the end, the digital signal is again converted to its analog form.

What are the advantages of a digital hearing - aid?

The advantages are: -
1. The signal analysis is more sophisticated i.e. there is noise reduction & speech enhancement.
2. The internal noise of the hearing - aid is reduced.
3. It provides "relaxed listening" in noisy listening environments.

What are the benefits to the user?

1. Improvement in quality of life.
2. Improvement in sound quality.
3. Higher listening comfort.
4. Better communication in noisy environment.
5. Better speech intelligibility in group conversations.
6. More flexibility in case of progressive hearing less.

Last updated on 04-12-2001