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Innovations that don't exist yet, your ideas for hearing aids

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In reply to @user715

Like Ambient Noise Reduction headsets?

I did an 8 hour overnight flight, left my aids in but had ANR headset. Just had the ANR active and there was practically no noise at all.
Problem with ANR earphones is noise leakage effectively bypassing ANR processing. My domes are less that optimum for the aids as I prefer comfort over efficiency. I would therefore get too little benefit with ANR .

Integration with smart assistants. As in ‘Hey Google/Siri/Alexa, change my hearing aid settings to Noise/Restaurant/Outdoors’.

An Apple Watch app for Phonak’s devices.

Kinetic batteries in rechargeable .

I think these are pretty mainstream as far as technology goes. There’s always better or worse of course.

Going to sound like a bit of a broken record here, but I’d also like TRULY WATERPROOF aids - no more BS about it. Aids I can swim in a pool, lake or ocean in; aids I could even take a shower wearing. In short, I’d like to hear 24x7 in all the same situations that folks who don’t need to wear aids hear in: LIFE.

Next to being waterproof, I’ve often fantasized about some things that are just peeping over the horizon now: like those “hearing” glasses that allow the wearer to focus on someone in noisy places. But for me, I want that sound to be STREAMED into my aids like phone calls that come in over on my phone. I really want HUMAN SPEECH to be streamed right into my aids/ears so I never miss even one word.

An analogy here is watching TV with the TV Connector vs being in a room with lots of people. When I stream audio into my aids, I hear EVERYTHING. When I’m in a room with ambient sounds competing with human speech … well, I’d only hazard a guess how much I hear … cuz I’m not HEARING it all.

Finally, being limited with cinderblock ears, I’d SO love aids with a battery life of 7 days or more. I don’t care if these are battery aids or rechargeables, but I don’t want to worry about my aids being charged up every day. (Note to self: I can probably NOT have battery aids if I also want truly waterproof ones.)

Not an innovation, but I would love some decent colours to choose from!! I don’t care if people see my hearing aids. After all, they can’t miss the grey hair and wheelchair! I like my silver Phonak Slims, but some sparkly green or purple hearing aids would have brought a smile to my face. You don’t stop liking colours once you are over 60 and definitely don’t like beige.

In reply to @1Bluejay

Recently, Starkey released hearing aids that last about 50 hours on a single charge. It also depends on how often we stream the sound. I think that is a good number, compared to the 16 hours currently offered by Phonak Audeo, for example.
Starkey made a new economical chip, which is made in fewer nanometers and also managed to make a chip with much lower consumption. If Starkey could do it, so can Phonak.
It may take a few years for that to arrive because building a new chip takes time.

Regarding waterproofing, I think that the biggest problem is the receivers, which are still not waterproof, they have partial resistance due to the wax protector. I don’t know if we will experience that soon, because they need to design a new type of receiver for that.
It sounds silly to say that. maybe we need some hearing aid protection like a swimming cap :smiley:

@markoo355 said:

It sounds silly to say that. maybe we need some hearing aid protection like a swimming cap :smiley:

It would be wonderful to have a swim cap that would keep the aids from getting soaked. I actually have a version of this cap from Amazon10. And come to think of it … I’ve never had the courage to try it out over a pair of Lumity Life aids. Would it be craaaaaaaazy if I did?

OMG. It would be scary-amazing if that cap kept just enough water from getting at the speakers in my ears. I’m past the 60-day trial … and I can just imagine Phonak denying a replacement for their “waterproof” aid if it’s after that cutoff. :no_mouth:

For me, an Ultra Power or Super Power Aid, that utilises rechargeable batteries, but you can also use replaceable batteries, perhaps the best of both worlds then, minus the range anxiety :grin:

Without question, noise canceling with my control from and app.

If only I can remove:

Auto ambient sounds such as wind,tire rumble and engine sounds.

Airline jet engine background.

A level of restaurant background sounds.

Leaf blower and the like when I’m working in the yard.

My wife when she is upset.

Well, maybe not the last one.

  • I want a built-in limiter in the Music program. Yes, there are limiters waiting to be enabled on some of the devices I use, but if there was one on the , one wouldn’t have the dig for one on the devices.

  • I want a selectable “Shooting” program that compresses the incoming boom, but doesn’t affect ambient sounds, such as voices. I actually have ear buds that do this, Walker’s Silencer, but I’d prefer the HAs did it. Less to carry to the range.

In reply to @mdboy

@mdboy said:

Surely there must be a material that lets sound through but keeps water out to keep receivers out of harm’s way?

In fact, NO. There is no such material in use for hearing aid speakers on the market today. While Phonak crows about their Lumity Life aids being “waterproof” that is just some misleading marketing hoohah for now.

That is not to say that there isn’t material out there that COULD be used to make the speaker (weakest link) of a hearing aid truly “waterproof”. But to-date, that has not been done. And certainly not in the Phonak Lumity Life aids, cuz I can look right down into a deep hole when I remove the at the top of my speakers. No waterproofing at all there. That’s where water will leak in and destroy the speaker. Such as I found out last fall after a couple short swims in a pool.

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