One of the best hearing aid brands in the world is—
- PHONAK HEARING AID
- STARKEY LIVIO EDGE AI
- EARGO NEO HIFI
(I) THE PHONAK HEARING AID DEVICE:-
Phonak is a hearing aid device company that hails from another company called Sonova. Sonova is the creator of Phonak, which is a swiss based company, that started in Switzerland in 1947.
They started this company with a vision to help people hear through externally manufactured devices.
Features of Phonak—
It is known for its high-end technology which is designed for the best in the world.
As mentioned in my previous blog “What are the different types/styles of HEARING AIDS and How do they work?“, loss of hearing can be caused due to various reasons and this could vary from a range of mild to severe.
Phonak is a company that provides aid to all kinds of hearing loss and to all extents of severity. Its founder, Sonova also sells cochlear implants that are used in cochlea transplantation in the name of Bionics.
1. External outlook:-
It also enables invisible hearing devices, meaning, hearing aids that when inserted by an expert become invisible to our eyes since they are completely hidden in the ear cavity. Such a device is called a LYRIC, which is made on the basis of an individual’s natural ear shape and size.
2. Bluetooth connectivity:-
Their hearing aids were the first to feature Bluetooth facilities. It has an additional unit called PARADISE, which can be paired with 8 Bluetooth devices at a time.
3. Accessibility:-
Well, it doesn’t stop here since they offer digital connectivity to advanced gadgets like smartphones, TV, and so on, thereby enabling the wearer’s accessibility to most sources of sound.
Previously, Phonak enabled access only to iOS phones, but later they introduced MARVEL which helped android users also to be accessible to their devices.
4. Tap system:-
Likewise, it offers a facility to attend calls, pause video streaming and also use ALEXA or SIRI just by a tap on the device.
5. High-end technology and Recharge ability:-
Its microphone, amplifier, and receiver are top-notch electronic models.
These models are also rechargeable by their lithium-ion battery technology which possesses a long battery life and it takes only 3 hours to charge completely that in turn works for 24hours.
These batteries have a warranty for 6 long years.
6. Water resistance:-
These devices are water-resistant. Mostly the marvel hearing aids are very effective in this case.
7. Customization:-
Phonak can be customized according to our hearing loss condition and severity. Also if you are facing hearing loss only in one ear, you can use a single device for that ear.
Well, everybody’s choices are different. Their level of comfort is variable. And all we need to know before choosing a device is that comfort should be our first priority.
A hearing aid is nearly like an artificial body part. Thus, Phonak has made a range of products that suits a community of people with all kinds of hearing problems.
8. Artificial intelligence:-
Off late, they have upped their game on using artificial intelligence in their devices. These devices are engineered using the Auto Sense OS 4.0.
The Auto Sense OS 4.0 is a perfect compilation of sound processing features that ideally fits into maximum user needs and lifestyles.
The features of Artificial intelligence in hearing aids are-
- Cancellation of unwanted sound
- Enhancing the amplitude of sound waves
- Sensing the movement of the user
- Cancellation of unwanted sound —– We can also choose what we want to hear through Phonak, which is why it is likely to help us cut down the noise of traffic and so on.
- Enhancing the amplitude of sound waves —– On the contrary, it also features a speech enhancer that amplifies a very soft range of sound as well and thereby enables the wearer to hear these noises. This means we can still enjoy the chirping of birds on a pleasant morning.
- Sensing the movement of the user —– The Phonak hearing aids can sense the movement of the user, that is, their sensor system of artificial intelligence helps to know if the wearer is moving or stationary. It also senses the range of noise in the surrounding.
For now, there are 30 kinds of hearing devices and 29 wireless ones.
The various models are—
- Audeo Marvel hearing aid
- Phonak Audeo Marvel
- Audeo Paradise
- Phonak Bolero M
- Phonak Virto M
- Phonak Naida Paradise
(II) THE STARKEY LIVIO EDGE AI —
The Starkey Livio edge AI came to the market in the year 2018. They are best suited for all stages of hearing problems.
Features of Starkey Livio Edge are—
1. Artificial intelligence:-
They have an in-built artificial intelligence and sensor system. Artificial intelligence trains the device to categorize one’s desires. This means it distinguishes between noises that are pleasant, noises that are necessary, noises that are unnecessary, and so on.
The disturbing noises are cut down in the process.
In simple terms, it literally reads your brain, as to the noises that your brain would prefer hearing and the noises that it would want to avoid.
For example:
If you are in a crowd amongst various people talking from all sides, but you choose to hear one of them. That is when this hearing aid specifically senses that one sound and caters it to your ear through artificial intelligence just like what a normal ear does with the help of our brain.
2. 3D Sensors:-
Well, it does not end here. The Starkey Livio edge AI hearing devices also possess 3D sensors.
Here, unlike artificial intelligence which helps to choose what you hear, these 3D sensors track what you hear.
For example:
Again, imagine yourself in a crowd. Someone whom you know is calling you from far away. The artificial intelligence in the case of this hearing aid will hear the sound of that person.
But what makes us turn towards them??
Yes, it is these 3D sensors that help us do so.
In the case of a normal ear, our auditory canal attracts the sounds of high velocity and in turn, tracks their direction.
But, for a person with a hearing problem, these 3D sensors compensate this natural activity of the ear by tracking sounds through its sensor system.
How do they work?
It is quite obvious that our head moves in the direction of the sound.
The sensor system exactly works on this phenomenon. That is, they control our head movement in such a way that it is in sync with the direction of sound velocities hitting the device. By this, the direction of sound is tracked.
Thus, if the movements of our head are in sequence with the direction of the sound, it means the device is working properly in our ears.
3. Transcribe and Translate:-
The Starkey hearing aid can type the context of your words and also translate various foreign languages for you. Now, this is something that a normal ear cannot do, but only a hearing aid can.
4. Bluetooth:-
Like any other hearing aid, Starkey also has Bluetooth connecting facilities which can help you talk on a call or also listen to music as close to reality.
5. Sound system:-
They possessed extremely good sound quality and wireless mode of devices.
It also has 2.4 GHz Li-ion rechargeable facilities which are made up of lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are one of the best batteries ever since they have high voltage when used and less discharge when not used. This makes them extremely durable.
No matter how best a system is built, it is still man-made. So, naturally, at some point, it can trigger unnecessary noises and irritate you. When this happens, all you need to do is tap on the device. This tap stimulates artificial intelligence and betters the situation.
Apart from that, they incurred exponential tech-based components like fall detecting sensors and body fitness and brain health detectors.
6. Fall detecting sensors:-
This created a revolution in the global market.
Guess why??
Consider a situation where this hearing aid is in your ear and you have a fall. This fall detecting system senses it and depending on the severity of the fall, it signals the nearby caretaking authorities and alarms our need for medical assistance along with our location through a GPS tracker.
Isn’t this great!!
7. Body and brain health scorer:-
The body fitness tracker in this device is connected to apps like apple health for iOS phones or google fit for android phones. By this they calibrate the number of calories burnt, the number of steps taken, optimum target to be reached and so on to keep an account of your physical health.
Likewise, they also score your brain’s mental health based on the percentage statistics of mobile use age on day to day basis.
Well! No wonder they were called to be one of the best inventions.
(III) EARGO NEO HIFI—
Eargo Neo HFI is a hearing aid brand that was founded in 2010, in San Jose, California by an ENT specialist called Florent Michel.
But nevertheless, it boomed the market economy in 2015.
Some of the monopolistic features of Eargo devices are—
Firstly, we need NOT visit an audiologist before seeing for these hearing aids, meaning they are accessible to everyone.
But, before that, we ought to give an exam conducted by the company in order to analyze our hearing capabilities.
They are cost-effective and you can get them for a very reasonable price.
They are suitable only for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.
These hearing devices are best known for their virtual invisibility.
What makes them invisible??
Well, they have four flexible palm-like structures stacked one on top of the other that protrude outwards from the hearing aid. These were called Flexi Tetrapalms which hold onto the ear cavity and help the device float inside. This is what makes them virtually invisible from the outside and comfortable from the inside.
The hearing aid is further sealed with a black cap that merges into the dark cavity of the middle ear and makes them close to invisibility.
Do you’ll know?
The founder, Florent Michel was driven by a feather to make this invention. This is why, Eargo hearing aids are as light, airy, and flexible as a feather. This is what makes them float in the ear cavity just like a feather.
Not just that, but these devices can also be recharged through a wired connection. The charging has high durability since it stays for straight 16 hours on full charging.
The other optimistic facility of this app is that its features can be controlled just through our phone screens.
Here, when I say phones, I meant for both iOS and Android phones through apps specific for specific versions of the product.
Example: Eargo Neo HiFi app was designed for Eargo Neo and Eargo HiFi versions.
Through these apps on our phones, we can adjust sounds in accordance with our comfort.
These apps are designed in such a way that—
- You can cut down the unnecessary background noise
- You can adjust the sound frequency and amplitude.
—It plots the amount of sound heard with respect to the actual amount of sound reaching our ears. This is done with the help of an inbuilt hearing screener.
— Thus, it in turn helps in determining the extent of hearing loss and the best-suited range of Eargo devices for it.
A few extracurricular policies of this company are:-
The company is head-on heels at its customer care and return policies.
The return policy exists for a duration of 45 days from the day of the query.
Customer services are one of their top-notch priorities, for which they have a good cumulative sum of people from all walks of life who are wise, knowledgeable, kind, and helpful to all their customers.
They also have a chatbox, where we can drop our queries and requests.
This is how Eargo makes an effort to reach out to its buyers.
Undoubtedly, Phonak, Starkey, and Eargo are one of the best hearing aid companies in the world.
So,
Hear beyond an ear.
THANK YOU
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