Modern hearing aids are pretty cool. They've crammed in an amazing amount of features in a super tiny form factor, with a battery that lasts for a week even when using bluetooth.
My Phonaks have the ability to automatically switch programs to some extent, and to fine tune the program using a companion app.
I can function and even have conversations to some extent in noisy environments, something that would have been impossible for me with hearing aids from a decade or so ago. I'm very grateful for this of course.
The pair costs roughly $2000. Luckily, it's covered by the national healthcare system[0] (which I of course pay for through my taxes) so I end up paying $50 every five years or so.
I hope the advances in "AI" will make it possible to not just amplify and filter (even if it's in very clever ways) but to isolate and enhance/reconstruct voices in noisy environments.
Meanwhile, I hope the trend of playing louder and louder music in cafes, restaurants and bars dies out. It's an accessibility nightmare, especially (but not only) for people with hearing loss.[1]
0: https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/en/about-us/healthcare-for-vi...
1: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17168504/restaurants-noise-lev...
My Phonaks have the ability to automatically switch programs to some extent, and to fine tune the program using a companion app.
I can function and even have conversations to some extent in noisy environments, something that would have been impossible for me with hearing aids from a decade or so ago. I'm very grateful for this of course.
The pair costs roughly $2000. Luckily, it's covered by the national healthcare system[0] (which I of course pay for through my taxes) so I end up paying $50 every five years or so.
I hope the advances in "AI" will make it possible to not just amplify and filter (even if it's in very clever ways) but to isolate and enhance/reconstruct voices in noisy environments.
Meanwhile, I hope the trend of playing louder and louder music in cafes, restaurants and bars dies out. It's an accessibility nightmare, especially (but not only) for people with hearing loss.[1]
0: https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/en/about-us/healthcare-for-vi...
1: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/18/17168504/restaurants-noise-lev...