- In this video, I'm gonna explain
just how much goes in to making a quality hearing aid.
Come up.
(upbeat music)
Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And on this channel,
I cover a bunch of hearing related information
to help make you a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
make sure you hit that subscribe button
and don't forget to click the bell
to receive a notification every time I post a new video.
Believe it or not, there are some skeptics out there
that believe that hearing aids
are just simple microphones, amplifiers and receivers
that are surrounded by a cheap piece of plastic
that you stick inside your ear.
While this may be true for most hearing aids
that are typically sold online,
this is definitely not the case
when it comes to hearing aids that are being created
by some of the best hearing aid manufacturers in the world.
There are a lot of things
that go into making a quality hearing aid,
from the advanced computer chips
that are used to optimize sound processing,
to the durability and quality of components
that go into making a hearing aid
work day in day out for years to come.
But the one thing that is more necessary
than anything when it comes to developing
a quality hearing aid, is time.
It is not uncommon for new hearing aid technology
to take years to develop
with the help of individuals
who happen to be among the best in their particular field.
Not only does this time commitment
lead to the development of new and improved hardware
that's used inside of hearing aids,
but it is also led to an exponential improvement
in the sound processing capabilities of the computer chips
used inside of these modern hearing aids.
Just thinking about the amount of time
that goes into designing, modeling,
constructing, fabricating, programming
and testing one of these new hearing aid platforms,
is just mind boggling.
Keep in mind that hearing aids
are like small little super computers
that have to function eight to 10 hours a day,
seven days a week,
52 weeks a year,
year after year
and they have to do this inside
the harsh environment of your ear
and they have to last significantly longer
than a laptop computer or a smartphone.
And this is precisely why Oticon, today's video sponsor,
is so committed to taking the time necessary to develop
high quality, life-changing hearing aid technology
that has been designed to withstand the rigors of daily use.
Take the development of the new Polaris platform
inside of the new Oticon More hearing aids for example.
In development for over six years,
the Oticon More took approximately 450 individuals
more than 700 total man years to develop
and get to the point where it was ready to be used
by individuals with hearing loss.
For Oticon, any new technology
always starts with the end user in mind
The Eriksholm Research Center is an entire facility
dedicated to the research and development of technology,
where the priority is the needs of the end-user,
not the needs of the engineers developing the new tech.
After all, if that new technology that's being developed
doesn't solve the problems of you,
the individual who has a hearing loss,
then what the heck is the point?
That's what led Oticon
to develop an onboard deep neural network
that actually uses deep learning
to improve the performance of the Polaris chip
inside of the Oticon More hearing aid.
This onboard deep neural network
was trained with over 12 million sound scenes,
which helps the hearing aids
better differentiate between important sounds
that you do wanna hear
and unimportant sounds that you don't wanna hear.
This form of deep learning
allows Oticon to supply 30% more sound to the brain
and improve speech understanding by yet another 15%
over their already impressive Opn S line of devices.
But developing a smarter
and better performing chip is just a starting point
to the ultimate end goal
of helping an individual with hearing loss
consistently hear their absolute best.
As an audiologist
who works with and performs detailed reviews
on all of the major hearing aid brands
as well as most of the direct to consumer
online hearing aid brands,
it is easy to tell which companies
are making cheap hearing aids
and which ones are making quality hearing aids.
It is also easy to see which manufacturers
are performing the proper due diligence
when it comes to quality assurance
and which companies are not.
As you can see, Oticon does everything they can
to make their hearing aids fail
so when they're used in the real world
under harsh conditions by someone like yourself,
you can be confident that your hearing aids
will be able to withstand the demands of your lifestyle.
Oticon spares no expense
when it comes to the quality of their materials
and the testing of their products.
They perform over 100 tests
to ensure that their hearing aids
are among the most durable in the industry.
Developing a quality hearing aid takes a lot more
than just slapping cheap components together
that were designed 30 years ago.
If you don't have a quality sound processing chip
inside of your hearing aids
and if those hearing aids have not been built
with actually quality materials
and you haven't had the proper quality assurance
done with those devices to make sure that they are durable
at withstanding the rigors of daily use,
then you do not have a quality hearing aid.
I spend a lot of time, no, wait,
an obscene amount of time
talking to engineer patients of mine
who truly understand the complexities of technology.
And the common theme among all of them
is that they are all in disbelief
about what this technology can actually do
inside of a device
that is no bigger than the end of your pinky finger.
So the next time that you're thinking
about how much time and effort
went into making these hearing aids that you're wearing,
just know that it took a lot of people,
a lot of time and expertise
to make these quality hearing aids
so you could hear your absolute best.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you liked the video, please share it.
And if you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out my website, drcliffaud.com.
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