BALLERUP, DENMARK – GN Hearing today unveiled the ReSound ONE™, a “revolutionary new hearing aid that solves one of the most enduring challenges for people with hearing loss”.
The unique solution places an additional microphone inside the ear canal, for the first time, allowing people relying on hearing aids to “experience the world with their own ears while preserving the comfort of an open-fit device”.
ReSound ONE M&RIE Hearing Aids
With its Organic Hearing philosophy, GN says that it has taken its design inspiration from how humans hear naturally and seeks to mimic this within its technology as closely as possible.
The outer ear (pinna) is designed by nature to work like an acoustic antenna. It helps the brain localize and tune in to a particular sound, for example when listening to a specific voice in a crowded café. However, the most popular styles of hearing aids (Receiver-In-Ear and Behind-The-Ear models) capture sound from microphones that sit behind the ear and then approximate the effect of the pinna. The result is “an averaged and incomplete reproduction of sound, making it hard for the brain to achieve its natural localization and noise-cancelling function”. Of the 79 million people who wear hearing aids globally,1 93% report having trouble hearing in noisy environments and 55% get confused about where sounds come from.2
ReSound ONE is the world’s first full-featured* hearing aid with a Microphone & Receiver-In-Ear design (M&RIE) that uses the unique shape of every individual’s ear to collect sound. This remarkable innovation has been achieved with a radical new receiver system combined with all-new Digital Feedback Suppression (DFS Ultra III), enabled by GN’s new and most powerful sound-processing chipset ever.
By picking up sound directly inside the ear, ReSound ONE “gives the brain everything it needs to tune in to individual voices, as well as significantly reducing background noise”. According to the company, clinical studies have found that all hearing aid users benefit from listening to sounds collected with their own ears, with 90% of users preferring the sound quality of ReSound ONE with M&RIE instead of only the microphone behind the ear.3,4
“I am very proud that, once again, GN is first in the industry with ground-breaking innovation that will make a genuine difference in how people experience conversations and sounds around them. Placing a microphone into the ear with an open-fit hearing aid is something the industry has battled for many years to achieve. This technology will allow people with hearing loss to feel that they are literally getting their own hearing back and hearing the way nature intended. ReSound ONE will boost the communication, relationships, and confidence of every individual.”
–GN Hearing CEO and President, Gitte Aabo
Additionally, ReSound ONE incorporates new All Access Directionality and the user-activated Ultra Focus settings. These enhanced operating modes “significantly improve speech recognition while preserving spatial perception in complex sound and noise situations”.
ReSound ONE includes rechargeability and extensive connectivity options to both iOS and Android™ smartphones for streaming and hearing aid control.
Availability
The new ReSound ONE will be available from August 27, 2020 in rechargeable and non-rechargeable models. The technology is also available in new Beltone Imagine hearing aids.
References:
*ReSound ONE introduces the world’s first full-featured hearing aid with M&RIE for a truly individualized, more complete sound experience. Full-featured means a microphone in the ear and two additional, standard directional microphones, directionality features and wireless audio streaming.
© 2020 GN Hearing A/S. All rights reserved. ReSound is a trademark of GN Hearing A/S. Beltone is a trademark of GN Hearing Care Corporation. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google LLC.
1. World Health Organization (2020) Deafness and hearing loss. Factsheet. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss. Accessed: July, 2020
2. MarkeTrak 2019
3. Jespersen et al (2020): M&RIE receiver preferred for sound quality and localization. ReSound white paper
4. Groth J. (2020). An innovative RIE with microphone in the ear lets users “hear with their own ears”. ReSound white paper
About ReSound
ReSound hearing aids, available from leading hearing care professionals, continue to set worldwide standards for quality and intuitive technology to help people with hearing loss communicate better than ever before. ReSound was the first hearing aid brand to be Made for iPhone, bringing direct streaming from hearing aids into the iPhone era. It also pioneered the development of 2.4 GHz wireless technology and made it possible to receive advanced at-home hearing care during COVID-19. The introduction of this new class of hearing technology with ReSound ONE demonstrates that ReSound is the undisputed innovation leader putting people with hearing loss at the center. Featuring award winning technology, ReSound has been trusted for decades by people with hearing loss and their caregivers around the world.
Source: GN
I am pleased to announce that I have fitted the Quattro RIC devices for almost 3 years and my patients have experienced neurogenesis in the hippocampus as a direct result of my manipulations during the follow up sequences. My observations are that the processing mechanisms (algorithms) have helped re-define noise spectrums and allowed the superior temporal gyrus improve speech and noise clearances that in turn allowed the growth of stem cell neurons to spread within the CA 1 complex, thus adding to clearer neurotransmitters in the processing area of the CA 1, and laying the baseline for clearer speech quality that my patients now report after approximately 6-7 months of regulated use in all environments! This may have also reduced the workload in the entorhiinal cortex which is the entry point of speech processing.
I have had no complaints whatsoever from my patients with regard to processing difficulties. A huge plus for Resound!