iHear’s new Eva hearing aid
Bay Area startup, iHear Medical, officially launched their all-new Eva hearing aid this month. The Eva, according to the company, is “designed specifically to address hearing loss of women”.
The new hearing aid is said to be programmed for the distinct hearing loss patterns of women.
Hearing Loss and Gender
Hearing loss patterns between men and women can be different, which may result in different approaches to treatment. Men more often have trouble with high-frequency sounds (consonants), whereas women generally have more trouble with low-frequency sounds (vowels).
“The better pure-tone audiometry thresholds of women at high frequencies is paradoxically accompanied by a “gender reversal” in which women, as they age, have a poorer capacity to hear at low frequencies–specifically those below the 1000- to 2000-Hz range–than do men.” –Murphy & Gates (1997)
Because of this gender difference, iHear says it created Eva to specifically cater to women’s hearing loss patterns.
Sound Processing, Fitting and Cosmetics
Eva is said to offer sound processing that includes noise reduction technology, to help reduce both sudden and ambient noise, to help improve listening performance in noisy situations like restaurants.
iHear says that Eva’s small size is designed specifically to wear inconspicuously behind a woman’s ear and is offered with smaller ear accessories to fit more comfortably.
The Eva hearing aid is personalized at home by the consumer using patented online tools, which deliver male and female speech for the tuning process.
Hearing aids can also be shipped pre-customized if audiogram results are submitted with an order, or customized online using EarPiNG™, which connects consumers with licensed hearing professionals for remote programming.
EarPiNG is said to connect licensed hearing professionals to end users
Eva will be offered in various color options, including beige, red, and grey. They will retail for $299 each, with several different upgrade options available to the consumer.
