Phonak Audéo Sphere

@DrJimmyJoeJimbob said:

enhanced speech clarity

Does anyone have a link to the original data for Phonak’s “speech-in-noise” study with the Sphere? Was this an independent double-blind study published in a peer-reviewed journal, who were the volunteers and what was the noise type, or was this just done “internally” with an in-house fanclub?

Just remember that for centuries people believed that Stradivarius violins sound better than anything produced since, until the instruments were properly tested…
e.g.:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.161944311413

None of the evidence seem to be available, and it is not peer-reviewed.
Peer reviewed studies prior to launch are virtually impossible to pull off.
Phonak often announces thing and provides the studies later, but here is the reference.

Wright, A., et al. (2024). Spheric Speech Clarity applies DNN signal processing to significantly improve speech understanding from any direction and reduce the listening effort. Phonak Field Study News retrieved from Evidence Library | Phonak6

and

1 Raufer, S., Kohlhauer, P., Jehle, F., Kühnel, V., Preuss, M., Hobi, S. (2024). Spheric Speech Clarity proven to outperform three key competitors for clear speech in noise. Phonak Field Study News retrieved from https://www.phonak.com/evidence​9

That study is on DNC including just 18 volunteers wearing Lumity HAs, and another paper discusses how AI might be used in general. Like for medicines, one would like to see hard data- not the patient testimonials that marketing likes to feed us.

Dont shoot the messenger!

Yes of course better data would be great, however the regulatory requirements, development process and risk to patient health is vastly different for medicines versus hearing aids.

At the end of the day, if the hearing aids don’t work, they won’t sell. You’ll know pretty quickly if they do work because the other manufacturers will rush to make their own AI denoise DNNs.

@lello58 said:

could you tell me if the Audèo Sphere will also be suitable for severe/profound losses like mine?

With Sound Recover yes, they’ll work for you. Without, you won’t have any chance of getting the highs as the Audeo only goes to 105 dB max.

This quote from the HT article by Karl Strom on Infinio Sphere, originally cited by @flashb1024
(see Phonak Audéo Sphere - #117 by AbramBaileyAuD for the full-article).

Along with some others from the media, I had the opportunity to try out this app function during a demonstration of the Audéo Sphere Infinio RIC. We were in a very noisy conference room with a lot of background noise and piped-in music. As I faced and talked with Phonak Research Audiologist Anne Miller, I could hear her voice very clearly and with good sound quality. Then, as she walked around me, I could variably hear or not hear her, depending on my adjustments to the DNN within the app. However, Anne’s voice was almost completely attenuated if she was speaking behind me and the conversational volume suddenly rose in a group in front of me. So, listening intent remains a tricky part of the AI-driven hearing equation. It’s not perfect, but having tried out countless hearing aids for over 30 years (and now with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss of my own), I was very impressed with the device and how well it zoomed in on speech in a crowded, noisy, reverberant room.

The smartphone app could have an interface with avatars of different voices it hears around your head in relative clock positions to the direction you’re facing. If you tap on an avatar for a voice to your right, that voice is temporarily made louder relative to overall room noise. You could go from avatar to avatar of speakers around you. Long press on the one you want to hear in preference to the others, and the DNN locks onto that one as much as possible and follows that voice wherever it goes (or your head goes, if you turn to look at something while you’re still listening to your preferred speaker). If you could have a version of the MyPhonak app on a smartwatch like the Apple Watch 10, maybe if you turned to look at what you wanted to hear and tapped (or double-tapped) your thumb and index finger together, you could immediately switch speech focus in the direction that you were looking from whatever you’d locked onto before in a difficult listening environment (Apple already has gesture control for the Apple Watch 10 introduced in the fall of 2023).

Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but I am somewhat disappointed that Audeo isn’t L-shaped. It would be an improvement to align the two microphones more horizontally to improve their effectiveness.

(from Providing Some Direction – Beamformers Explained4)

@gsl said:

Given Phonak’s reputation for clever and inventive solutions, I believe they can develop devices that support disposable batteries

It is very difficult because of the low voltage of zinc-air disposable batteries, which is only 1.4 V. The voltage of a rechargeable battery is 3.7V.

Even two disposable batteries in one case, set in a series circuit, give you only 2.8V.

I’m hoping they create a nadia UP (675 battery) version.

There’s a chance they will but it will likely be quite some time. I’d guess a year or more.

“The hearing aids are said to provide 16 hours of battery life.”

Apparently, Phonak has not addressed this issue. I get 16 hours on my Paradise and Lumity HAs with a couple of hours of streaming. Advanced technology to help us hear better is wonderful but 16 hours? (The Rexton’s battery life is in the 30s btw.)

I just don’t understand their priorities.

Tons of info to digest here after watching Matthew’s new video. 10 db improvement for speech in noise is huge and so is Bluetooth LE Audio. Biggest question is battery life. I suspect the new AI chip is a battery hog. It’s also big. Same size as the larger Audéo Life hearing aids so people with glasses might have issues.

I’m very excited and will definitely trial these to see if the benefits are worth jumping from Lumity to Sphere.

Jordan

@Bimodal_user said:

It is very difficult because of the low voltage of zinc-air disposable batteries, which is only 1.4 V. The voltage of a rechargeable battery is 3.7V.

Even two disposable batteries in one case, set in a series circuit, give you only 2.8V.

Whatever Phonak is doing could work just as well at 1.4V as at 3.7V. Zinc-air battery current limitations might or might not be a problem. But if Phonak et al wanted that problem solved, they could probably get battery manufacturers to make higher-powered 13 or 312 batteries, the way they make special 675’s for implants.

And…the new myPhonak 6.8 is available for download in Apple’s App Store.

Jordan