Hearing Technologies

By Tish Ramirez, AuD The rapid advancement of technology has introduced a new era in how we interact with the world around us. You can control the thermostat in your home while at work. Wearable fitness trackers make it easy to see how many steps you take each day. You can even find out the weather by asking a tabletop

ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON — This week Costco officially rolled out the latest iteration of its “Kirkland Signature” branded hearing aids in stores across the United States. The Kirkland Signature 8.0 (KS 8) is the latest generation of the company’s popular private-label devices. Sivantos, currently in Costco under its Rexton label and the supplier of the KS 7 hearing aids, was chosen to

Phonak and Advanced Bionics announced a new microphone technology this week that is said to help people with hearing aids and cochlear implants hear better, especially in noisy environments. Called MultiBeam Technology, the new approach could soon be applied in future advanced wireless microphones. The initial study results with patients have show significant improvements in speech recognition.     In spite

Hearing implant maker, Cochlear Ltd, announced last week the commercial availability of the new Baha SoundArc in the United States and Canada. The new device is a non-surgical bone conduction wearing option for children with conductive or mixed hearing loss, or single-sided deafness (SSD), who are not yet eligible or ready for an implant. The Baha SoundArc and accompanying Softband

For 2018, Jabra has unveiled the latest expansion of its popular line of hearable devices. The third generation devices, the Elite Active 65t and Elite 65t, include compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, as well as Apple’s Siri on iOS devices, and Google Assistant for Android devices. The Elite 65t is designed for daily use, while the Elite Active 65t

Silicon Valley-based hearing aid maker, Eargo, announced an all-new hearing device: Eargo Max. The company, which recently received a $45 million dollar investment, has been manufacturing and selling rechargeable, direct-to-consumer hearing devices since 2015. The new Eargo Max is reported to be designed with an all-new chip set and operating system, for improved sound quality and noise reduction. According to

At this year’s CES convention in Las Vegas, Qualcomm Technologies announced a new low-power chip that the company says could drastically reduce power consumption for high tech wireless earbuds and hearables, allowing for much longer battery life. The new chip, QCC5100, is engineered to reduce power consumption by as much as 65 percent for voice calls and streaming. The chip’s

At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung will unveil a new speaker technology that can reportedly send sound to a single person without the need for earphones. Called S-Ray (Sound-Ray), the new portable directional speakers are said to “maintain the advantages of conventional directional speakers and/or earphones”. The new S-Ray technology is one of three new projects spun out

Cochlear implant maker, Advanced Bionics, announced last week that the company will be incorporating Sonova’s new SWORD (Sonova Wireless One Radio Digital) chip technology into their devices. Current users of the Naída CI Q90 processor, as well as future recipients, will be able to use their device to connect to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. The new wireless technology platform allows

Swiss startup, Fennex AG, announced the release of Fennex 2.0–an updated version of their popular Augmented Hearing App. Fennex 2.0 includes new features, such as a simplified user interface and a feature that enables or disables the “hearing correct” function based on results of the hearing test. Overall the company says the update offers “greater personalization of the hearing experience”.