- In this video, I'm talking about using
machine learning inside hearing aids.
Coming up.
(upbeat music)
Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology,
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Anthem, 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
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Chances are, when I mention machine learning,
you're either thinking what the heck is machine learning?
Or you think of different subscription services
like Netflix.
You see, Netflix, at least in my household,
knows what I want to watch before I know
I want to watch it.
Basically, Netflix is using machine learning to identify
what types of shows that I like based on
other shows that I've watched before.
But what if I told you that machine learning
could not only improve your movie-watching experience,
but it also had the capability to improve how well you hear.
Imagine this, you just got a brand new set of hearing aids
and your hearing care professional programmed them correctly
to your hearing loss prescription
using real ear measurement, of course.
And then you go with a friend to a restaurant
that happens to be noisy.
And you're sitting inside of that restaurant thinking,
you know, I'm hearing better, but I'm not quite hearing
up to the level that I would hope to be hearing
inside of this particular situation.
Normally, you'd have to remember how you heard
in that situation and then take that information
back to your hearing care professional
at a follow-up visit so they could make adjustments
on your hearing aids based on that feedback
that you've given them and hopefully they would be able
to get it right.
But what if instead, you could be in that situation
with your friends, and be able to make adjustments
on your own hearing aids to the point where you hear
better in that situation at that moment.
And better yet, what if you didn't even have to know
what the heck that you were doing
in order to achieve those optimal settings
inside of your hearing aids?
Well, that's the power of machine learning.
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence
that uses data to recognize patterns
to help make decision with the help of human intervention.
And while this human intervention is minimal,
it's the combination of human and machine
that actually maximizes this potential.
And this is exactly what today's video sponsor
Widex is doing with their SoundSense technology
inside of their Evoke hearing aids.
With SoundSense Learn, the Evoke app let's you choose
between two different sound samples
while you're actually in a real listening situation.
You simply identify what type of situation you're in
and what your goal is inside of that environment.
The SoundSense Learn feature with then create
two different sound profiles,
one labeled A and one labeled B.
If you've ever had your eyes checked,
it's just like going to the optometrist
and making a decision on which lens
you feel like you're seeing better with.
Each option changes how you hear in real-time
in that environment.
Once you determine which option you like best,
you then indicate how much more you like it.
Each time you perform this comparison,
SoundSense Learn will calculate the most likely
optimal setting for that next comparison.
With the help of machine learning inside of the
SoundSense Learn app, you could take millions
of different program settings, and optimize them
within 20 paired comparisons, even though,
it often takes fewer than this
to maximize sound quality and sound comfort
of your hearing aids.
This doesn't override your universal program
that was set up by your hearing care professional,
so you don't have to worry about messing up
the program settings that they have already made for you.
In a 2018 study published in the Hearing Review,
researchers found that listening comfort improved
when using SoundSense Learn while in
three different noisy situations
compared to a non-active environment classifier
and an active environment classifier.
Users also indicated better sound quality
when using SoundSense Learn while listening
to three different music genres
compared to with and without the active classifier.
In a more recent 2019 study published in the Hearing Review,
a survey of participants who indicated that they had used
SoundSense Learn were asked if they felt it had helped them
improve a listening situation,
and if they would recommend it to others.
By week seven, 72% of participants reported
an improvement after using SoundSense Learn
and 80% reported a willingness to recommend
this feature to others.
In order to illustrate just how unique
individual user preferences are, this scatter plot
shows a three-dimensional image of over 33,000
unique programs created by nearly 13,000 users
of SoundSense Learn.
The reason I'm showing you this complex
collection of data isn't because I want to
explain it to you in detail, it's to illustrate
that there is no clear trend on what
individuals prefer, which shows the value
of performing individual customization
of your hearing aids to achieve a sound setting
that you prefer.
But not only do Widex hearing aids utilize
SoundSense Learn technology to customize
your hearing aid settings, they actually use
SoundSense Adapt as well, which remembers
different settings that you've made
inside of your hearing aids in different environments
so your hearing aids actually get smarter
the more that you wear them.
Widex also has the capability of using this
anonymous data, combining it with all
of the different users around the world
using the Evoke hearing aids, so that they can improve
the SoundSense Learn technology as time goes on.
At the end of the day, in real life,
machine learning has the capability
to improve how well you hear in a very specific situation
while you are actually inside of that situation
and it also has the capability to pave the way
for improvements in the future.
After all, as cool as it is to have Netflix
know what I want to watch before I want to watch it,
it would be even better if a hearing aid
could identify exactly how you want to hear
in a particular environment before you do.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions, leave them
in the comments section below.
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go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
I'll see you next time.
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