New hearing aid technologies have advanced dramatically in the past five years. Hearing aids can now connect to smartphones via apps to stream audio and customize settings based on location. This allows for improved hearing in noisy environments. Advanced features include geotagging locations and pairing with computers. The technology will likely continue integrating with other wearable devices. While the technology has improved, many people still wait too long to address hearing loss due to stigma. However, early treatment can help prevent cognitive decline.

1. 66 www.popularmechanics.co.za ● FEBRUARY 2015
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FEBRUARY 2015 ● www.popularmechanics.co.za 67
“Maggie, come in, come in… Can you hear me?”
my colleague whispers into my iPhone. Her voice sounds faint,
but I’m 80 metres away, so that’s probably no surprise. What is
surprising: I can hear her, although I’m pretty severely hearing
impaired.
I can hear her whispering into my ear because the Trulink
app on my iPhone is streaming the sound recorded by my
phone’s microphone straight to the Starkey Halo hearing aid
I’m testing out.
A hearing aid needs to be replaced roughly every five years
– in part because they don’t last much longer than that, but
also because people’s hearing impairment usually worsens sys-
tematically and their needs change as technology (luckily)
advances. My Oticon aid and I are nearing the end of our road
together, so I’ve been investigating some new options.
Most of the patients who consult my audiologist, Chelsea
Strang, are elderly and not too fussed about advancing tech-
nologically. So, when Chelsea saw I had an iPhone, she got this
look of someone introducing The Walking Dead to a probable
new fan. She rattled off the aid’s specifications and showed
me the app. As she talked, my jaw dropped. In five years, the
landscape of hearing aid technology had changed dramatically.
All the aids from various manufacturers she showed me had
features that I’d never think to add to a hearing aid.
Stuff like smartphone connectivity, geotagging your hearing
aid’s settings to various locations and pairing with your computer,
Capable of smartphone connectivity, geotagging and pairing with
computers: could this really be a hearing aid? New-wave devices to
assist the hearing-impaired are worlds away from clunky old-school
designs.
BY MAGGIE MARX
Apps such as Siemens’s touchControl (opposite, main picture) and
Starkey’s Trulink interact with hearing aids such as the Starkey Hero
(opposite, bottom) to enhance hearing far beyond the abilities of the
designs previously used. One significant benefit is the ability to custom-
ise specific modes, from listening to music to enabling the user to focus
on a speaker or sound in a noisy environment such as a restaurant,
above.
PHOTOGRAPHS:WWW.SIEMENS.COM/PRESS,STARKEY.COM

2. FEBRUARY 2015 ● www.popularmechanics.co.za 6968 www.popularmechanics.co.za ● FEBRUARY 2015
TV and landline. This gives the user absolute control over what
she’d like to hear and how loud she wants to hear it.
And according to Dave Fabry, vice president of audiology and
professional relations at Starkey, this connectivity will only be
increasing: “In the future hearing aids will seamlessly integrate
with other wearable devices. Think of the movie Her – the
hearing aid will be more of a personal hearing assistant than a
stand-alone device.”
Starkey’s Halo surprised me. I’m used to a hearing aid just
amplifying sound, but by pairing it with my iPhone I could lis-
ten to Siri trying her best to read my Afrikaans SMSes to me,
stream audio (music, GPS instructions and phone calls) straight
to my ear and also adjust my sound requirements for every
room or setting I find myself in. The live microphone function
allows the user to stream live from the phone’s mic. It even has
a “Find my hearing aid” feature. Luckily that’s one feature I
didn’t have to test out.
TECH FUSION HELPS MAKE
SENSE OF SOUND
Sound by itself is just, well, noise.
Making sense of sound is the
tricky bit.
To address this, hearing aid manu-
facturer Oticon has developed what it
calls BrainHearing (graphic, right).
According to Tally Sherban, a Client
Relations Executive at Oticon South
Africa, the brain uses four key audio-
logical features to make sense of
sound:
● Sound input from both ears helps
the brain orient itself in the environment.
● The ability to separate relevant
sounds from competing noise.
● Knowledge of where to focus in
noisy sound environments.
● Sound recognition.
“For the brain to make sense of
sound, we have to allow both ears to
work together, to keep the natural
sound level differences occurring at
each ear. It’s about preserving the
important details of sounds while
maintaining as much of the surrounding
environment as possible. From there
we prioritise speech information over
other sounds and allow the hearing device
to deliver varying degrees of directionality,”
Sherban says.
BrainHearing fuses several technologies
under control of a sophisticated quad-core
signal processing platform, Inium. “It’s the
first platform that makes it possible for two
hearing instruments to communicate con-
tinuously and seamlessly.” This enables the
individual to organise sounds and to orient
themselves within their surrounding by let-
ting both ears work together with the brain
– constantly – and in real time (spatial
sound). It also allows them to hear better in
challenging environments by preserving as
many of the unique characteristics as pos-
sible of a sound to work alongside
spatial sound. This helps support the brain
in separating voices and sounds from each
other. The user has the freedom to focus by
understanding speech over other noises,
engaging in conversation and switching
focus when necessary (free focus). An addi-
tional feature, YouMatic, helps make
sounds more recognisable.
“All hearing aids comprise four basic components,” Fabry says.
● One or more microphones to pick up speech and other envi-
ronmental sounds;
● Circuitry (usually digital) to enable the hearing aids to be
adjusted for individual hearing losses to ensure that soft sounds
are audible across a wide frequency response (from 200 to
8 000 Hz);
● A receiver or speaker to present the amplified sounds to the
hearing aid user; and
● A battery/power supply – typically a small 1,5-volt “pill” style
battery.
Companies such as Starkey, Oticon and Belltone are constantly
undertaking research to enhance these basics as much as possible.
Because of this, a hearing aid doesn’t come cheaply. They can
cost as much as R40 000 – each.
Oticon’s Streamer Pro device enables people who use Oticon
wireless hearing instruments to connect to an iPhone via the
Oticon ConnectLine App. Streamer Pro is worn around the neck
and acts as an intermediary device to connect Bluetooth-enabled
devices to Oticon hearing instruments.
The device enables users to switch to a variety of input sources,
with individual volume adjustment. Audio streaming is possible
from TV, landline and office phones and personal microphones
directly to hearing devices. Specific hearing modes can be per-
sonalised and named for easy identification – such as restaurant,
office or sports.
Recently at the 59th International Congress of Hearing Aid
Acousticians, EUHA, in Hanover, Germany, Siemens presented
the new model of its Ace hearing aid. This smallest Siemens
behind-the-ear hearing system is now based on the new hear-
ing instrument platform binax, also presented at EUHA. With
this, for the first time, the user can remotely control the aid
wing the touchControl app, which is available for Apple and
Android smartphones. Ace wearers are now able to adjust
the volume, sound settings, program selection, and the
tinnitus noiser in Ace hearing aids inconspicuously via their
smartphone.
Ace, which is only 2 cm long and weighs about 20 grams, can
be tuned to the specific hearing preferences of both new and
experienced wearers. It’s fully automatic and adapts functionality
continuously to changing listening situations and listening needs.
The touchControl app is compatible with all Siemens hearing
instruments available on the new binax platform.
The biggest problem facing hearing impaired people today,
Because my right ear is completely dead and no hearing aid
or operation can make it remotely more useful than to be the
second bearer of my earrings, I wear an aid only in my moder-
ately impaired left ear. The TruLink app can, however, sync two
aids perfectly.
Chelsea explains that there are three main types of hearing
loss and that all three can vary in severity: “Conductive hearing
loss involves damage to the outer ear, ear drum or middle ear.
Sensorineural involves the vestibulocochlear nerve, the inner
ear, or central processing centres of the brain. A mixed hearing
loss involves a combination of these two.”
That’s why matching a patient’s hearing loss to the perfect
hearing aid is no mean feat. Audiologists have to balance the
patient’s preferences and lifestyle with a budget and still pro-
vide enough power to the impaired ear(s).
Whichever aid the patient gets fitted with is still an incredible
piece of technology.
LOCAL TECH IS A
HIT, TOO
Cutting-edge hearing
aid tech doesn’t have
to originate abroad. Two
locally developed systems
specifically aimed at the
hearing impaired won
plaudits at the 2014 SAB
Social Innovation Awards.
The awards are aimed at benefiting women, youth, people
with disabilities and people living in rural areas.
Smartphone hearing test HearScreen (top and above) was
placed joint third overall, earning R350 000 in the process.
HearScreen is patented software that transforms any smart-
phone into a calibrated device for early identification of
disabling hearing loss. It reduces costs by more than 80%
compared with existing devices.
Thanks to its automated test sequences and interpretations
it has one significant benefit: operators need not be trained.
There are other advantages that include environmental noise
monitoring for quality control and a cloud-based server for
remote data monitoring and surveillance.
Safe and Sound Technology was given a seed grant of
R150 000 for what’s described as “an external sensory device
for the hearing impaired alerting the user to environmental
sound through vibration”.
BRAINHEARING
Only 1 in 4 people with hearing loss actually take the time to address
their hearing loss, research shows.
Crystal clear audio at your fingertips
ReSound’s Linx (www.kind2hearing.co.za) streams sound
from Apple devices. Wearers can talk on the phone and
listen to music in quality stereo sound without the need for
additional remote controls, accessories or pendants. A dedi-
cated app allows preset volume levels and audio tone
controls, as well as geo-
tagging to assign and
adjust to the acoustics of
frequently visited places
such as home, work and
favourite restaurants. The
company’s smallest wire-
less receiver-in-ear hear-
ing aid (below), it costs a
hefty R32 000.

3. though, isn’t the price. Rather, it’s the stigma and their own
misconceptions regarding hearing aids, says Fabry.
“The average patient waits seven to 10 years after learning
that they have hearing loss (to get an aid). This is perhaps the
biggest challenge. Hearing aid technology exists today that can
PARTS OF A HEARING AID
1. Microphone
2. Flexible printed
circuit board
3. Battery
4. Receiver
5. Antenna
help people lead more active, fulfilling lives, but the stigma
associated with hearing loss and hearing aids still persists for
many,” he explains.
Fabry also warns that untreated hearing loss have been cor-
related with increased cognitive decline.
Chelsea agrees: “Research is telling us more and more that
‘the sooner the better’. When you can’t hear what’s going on
around you, your mental sharpness and communication abilities
suffer. The earlier you start using hearing aids, the quicker
you’ll notice benefits.”
I got my first hearing aid, a huge Belltone that barely fitted
in my ear, only when I was 12. That’s because all kinds of smart
people were telling my parents all kinds of stories. Things like
my brain would melt because of all the sound, or that I should
probably be attending a school for deaf children. Finally, a very
wise doctor told them to just “get the kid a freakin’ aid” and
be done with it.
I’ll admit, it did take a bit of getting used to. I (or maybe the
angsty tweens piled on top of me) once broke it into little pieces
in a touch rugby match; I stepped on it a few times and took it
for a couple of showers and swims. But it was worth it. I heard
my own footsteps for the first time – yes, my mom did cry – I
was astounded at the sound a zipper makes and how loudly I
actually speak.
I obtained two language degrees after attending mainstream
schools. I now get to appreciate live music (Foo Fighters anyone?)
and go to the movies when I get the chance. My speech is
near perfect and I have very few issues communicating. And
now I’m on my third hearing aid, looking for the fourth. I think
I’m going to get a shocking pink one – because of all the stigma,
you know?
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