Thomas Behrens of Oticon has something to say regarding technological advancements in AI when it comes to hearing health. Behrens is the company’s Senior Director of the Centre for Applied Audiology Research. He has first-hand knowledge on the focus of hearing aid technology, how instruments are being developed, the benefits to users, etc.
According to Behrens, they have uncovered new information about the brain’s auditory center which allowed them to reinvent hearing technology, focusing on deep neural networks instead of noise reduction.
Behrens added that deep neural networks allow the brain to create a complete sound scene so it can focus on what it needs to pay attention to. To create these sound scenes, they developed an AI that can take more detail into account so that the person using the hearing aid can hear the slight sounds in their surroundings.
Unlike the previous algorithms used by engineers, this new technology enables hearing aids to not just focus on voices but background noise s well, and switch focus between them. Additionally, this technology integrates and assimilates learnings into our neural network which helps it recognize patterns in its sound library.
Behrens says they use sphere-shaped microphones to record high-resolution sounds for the library to which the neural networks are exposed to. Add in the integration of new learning and the result is a hearing aid that learns like a human.
Read more details about this astonishing technological advancement here.