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Dr. Cliff Olson, Audiologist and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix Arizona, discusses how hearing aids are designed to help separate speech from background noise without making background noise louder.
Hearing aids have come a long way in addressing the challenge of background noise amplification. We've seen significant advancements in technology that allow these devices to enhance speech while minimizing unwanted sounds. Modern hearing aids utilize sophisticated features like digital noise reduction and directional microphones to improve the listening experience in various environments.
Digital noise reduction enables hearing aids to identify and reduce amplification of steady-state noises, such as air conditioning or restaurant chatter. Meanwhile, directional microphones help prioritize sounds from specific directions, typically focusing on speech from the front while reducing sounds from other angles. These innovations have transformed the way hearing aids handle complex acoustic situations, making them more effective and user-friendly.
Hearing aids have come a long way since their early analog days. Before 1996, these devices simply amplified all sounds equally. This approach had significant drawbacks, especially in noisy environments. Users often found background noise overwhelming, making it difficult to focus on speech.
The only way to reduce unwanted sounds was through manual adjustments. Audiologists would use tiny screwdrivers to modify low-frequency amplification via trim pots. This method was far from ideal and offered limited relief.
The introduction of digital hearing aids in 1996 marked a turning point. Digital noise reduction technology revolutionized the user experience. These advanced devices can now distinguish between speech and background noise.
Digital hearing aids analyze sound modulation patterns. They identify steady-state noises like air conditioning or traffic and reduce their amplification. Meanwhile, they maintain or increase amplification for speech, which has more varied modulation.
Users can adjust noise reduction levels to suit their preferences. Some prefer strong reduction for clarity, while others opt for less to maintain spatial awareness.
Modern hearing aids often feature two microphones, typically in behind-the-ear models. This dual-microphone setup enables directional hearing capabilities.
The devices use timing differences between sound waves hitting each microphone to determine the direction of incoming sounds. This allows them to prioritize sounds from specific directions, usually in front of the user.
In noisy environments like restaurants, directional microphones can focus on speech coming from the front while reducing amplification of surrounding noise. Some advanced models offer multiple directional modes, allowing users to adapt to different listening situations.
Hearing aids today can differentiate between various sound patterns. They excel at identifying speech, which has distinct modulation characteristics. Background noises typically have a steady-state pattern, making them easier for the devices to detect and manage.
Digital noise reduction in hearing aids can be tailored to individual preferences. Some users prefer significant noise reduction to minimize background sounds, while others opt for less to maintain spatial awareness. Many devices allow adjustment through smartphone apps or even smartwatches, offering flexibility in different environments.
Modern hearing aids often employ dual-microphone setups. These systems can pinpoint sound sources by detecting timing differences between the microphones. This allows the devices to prioritize speech from specific directions while reducing amplification of surrounding noises. Some hearing aids offer multiple directional strategies, balancing speech clarity with spatial awareness.
Hearing aids do more than simply amplify all sounds. Modern devices use sophisticated technology to enhance speech while reducing unwanted background noise.
Digital noise reduction is a key feature in today's hearing aids. This technology identifies steady background sounds like road noise or air conditioning and reduces amplification for those inputs. At the same time, it maintains amplification for speech, which has a distinct modulation pattern.
Directional microphones also play a crucial role. Many hearing aids have two microphones that work together to determine the direction of incoming sounds. This allows the devices to prioritize amplification for speech coming from in front of the wearer while reducing amplification for surrounding noise.
Some people prefer strong reduction to minimize background sounds, while others opt for less to maintain spatial awareness. Many hearing aids allow users to adjust these settings themselves through smartphone apps.
ReSound Nexia hearing aids offer innovative solutions for managing background noise. These devices employ advanced digital noise reduction technology to identify and minimize steady-state sounds like air conditioning or restaurant chatter. The amount of noise reduction can be customized to individual preferences, from low to high settings.
Directional microphones in ReSound Nexia aids further enhance speech intelligibility. The 360 all-around feature provides multiple strategies for microphone directionality. Users can choose full directionality for optimal speech understanding, omnidirectional mode to preserve spatial awareness, or a hybrid approach with one aid directional and the other omnidirectional.
We appreciate the flexibility ReSound Nexia offers. Users can adjust noise reduction settings through the ReSound Smart 3D app, with Apple Watch wearers able to activate the noise filter directly from their wrist. This adaptability allows for seamless transitions between different listening environments.
Hearing aids must be carefully programmed to match each individual's unique hearing loss profile. This is crucial for effectively amplifying speech while minimizing background noise amplification. Many people with hearing loss have better low-frequency hearing but struggle with high frequencies. Without proper programming, hearing aids might over-amplify low-frequency background noise while not providing enough boost to high-frequency speech sounds. This can make noisy environments even more challenging.
Real ear measurement is an essential tool for optimizing hearing aid performance. This technique allows us to measure the actual sound output of hearing aids while they're in a person's ears. We use it to verify that the devices are providing the right amount of amplification across all frequencies, especially in louder environments. It helps ensure that speech is amplified sufficiently to rise above background noise, and that the maximum output is set appropriately for comfort and clarity.
If hearing aids amplify sound, wouldn't they just amplify background noise too?
Hey guys! Cliff Olson, Doctor of audiology and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona. and in this video I'm answering the question, Do hearing aids make background noise louder?
When you consider the basic functionality of a hearing aid, the concept is pretty simple. Amplify sounds so somebody with hearing loss can actually hear them. And hearing aids are excellent when it comes to doing this. This is great news if you're in a quiet room trying to hear one person talk or if you're just in your living room watching tv.
However, what about when you go into background noise? If hearing aids are simply designed to amplify sound and you go into a noisy environment, wouldn't it amplify all that noise too?
Let me know what you think the answer to this question is down in the comment section. I'm going to answer this question and explain exactly why it is or is not the case. But before I do, if you could do me a huge favor and click the like button, it really helps out the channel. And if you are not yet subscribed to the channel with notifications turned on, go ahead and do that as well. It is greatly appreciated and a huge shout out to ReSound for sponsoring today's video, but more on them in a little bit.
Back in the day, unfortunately, the answer to this question was yes. If you went into background noise, the hearing aids would amplify the background noise just as much as the speech making that type of an environment almost unbearable to be in. Before 1996, we didn't even have fully digital hearing aids, and the best way to reduce background noise was to take a little tiny screwdriver and reduce the low frequency amplification using a trim pot.
Fortunately, today's modern hearing aid technology is a lot better than it used to be, and we get to benefit from different features like digital noise reduction and directional microphones.
Digital noise reduction is a hearing aid's ability to identify and reduce the amount of amplification given to different steady state noises like road noise in the car, air conditioner noise, and restaurant noise. It does this by being able to identify the different modulation characteristics of noise and noise happens to have more of a steady state modulation, which makes it really easy for the hearing aid to identify and reduce the amplification to speech on the other hand, has a lot of modulation that can be easily identified by the signal processing of a hearing aid.
When you go into a noisy environment, the hearing aid will be able to identify that steady state noise and reduce the amount of amplification to it and keep the amplification up for the speech. The amount of digital noise reduction that you should use is different for everybody. Some people like a lot of digital noise reduction to bring down that background noise as much as humanly possible, and other people do not like to use a lot of digital noise reduction because they like to keep their spatial awareness.
Now, the other feature that helps you in background noise is something called directional microphones. Most hearing aids that are worn today are called receiver and canal or receiver in the ear devices that actually go behind your ear. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, why would you ever want to wear a hearing aid that goes behind your ear? Well, because it allows the hearing aid to have two microphones, and when you have these two microphones, each of your hearing aids, those hearing aids can identify which direction sound is coming from due to timing differences between when sound hits one microphone and then hits the other microphone.
When a hearing aid can determine which direction sound is coming from, it can prioritize amplification given to good sound like speech and reduce the amount of amplification given to bad sounds like noise. So again, if you're sitting in a restaurant and you want to hear the person who's right in front of you, those directional microphones will help you pick up their voice, and the hearing aids will reduce the amplification given to any of the other sounds around you.
And one great example of a hearing aid brand that does this really well is resound today's video sponsor The Resound Nexia. Hearing aids not only use digital noise reduction to reduce the amount of background noise that you get, but they also use directional microphones to isolate in on the speech that you want to hear.
The amount of noise reduction that you get from a resound NA hearing aid can be set to automatic, so it fluctuates based on the complexity of the environment that you're in, or your hearing care professional can lock it anywhere between low and high. So if you happen to have a preference for not a lot of noise reduction, you can set it up that way. And if you have a preference for a lot of noise reduction, you can set it that way too.
If your preferences happen to change when you go into different listening environments, you can actually change this noise reduction yourself by using the ReSound Smart 3D app. If you happen to be an Apple Watch user, you can even activate the noise filter right from your wrist, but it doesn't stop there.
Resound also has multiple strategies when it comes to directional microphones called 360 All-Around. This allows you to activate a program with directional microphones engaged on both hearing aids for optimal speech intelligibility. Keep both hearing aid microphones on omnidirectional mode to preserve spatial cues or keep one hearing aid in directional mode while keeping the opposite hearing aid in omnidirectional mode to get better speech intelligibility while preserving access to spatial cues. This gives the Resound Nexia hearing aid a very unique way to handle background noise no matter what type of environment you're in.
Being able to use a combination of digital noise reduction and directional microphones is what gives today's modern hearing aids a unique ability to amplify speech while still being able to reduce the background noise. However, there is also one other very important aspect when it comes to amplifying speech and not just the background noise, and that is making sure that your hearing aids have been programmed to match your hearing loss prescription and verified using Real Ear Measurement.
When you go into a noisy place like a restaurant, if we were to measure that background noise, we would identify that most of that noise is low frequency in nature. Most people with hearing loss have bad high frequency hearing, but still pretty good low frequency hearing. This means that if your hearing aids have not been programmed to match your high frequency hearing loss prescription, there's a chance that your hearing aids are over amplifying the background noise, but not giving you enough amplification of the high frequencies for you to understand the person talking to you.
Real Ear Measurement can also be used to ensure that you're receiving enough loud level amplification because people, when they're talking to you in a noisy environment tend to raise the volume of their voice, and if you don't amplify their voice enough to get over the background noise, you're not gonna hear them very well. And to ensure that your maximum power output of your hearing aids is set high enough for you to do so.
Now, if you do not know what realer measurement is, I highly recommend that you check out this video that I'll link in the description because it is the best way to ensure that your hearing aids have been programmed correctly to your hearing loss prescription.
So let's answer the question. Do hearing aids make background noise louder? The answer to the question is actually yes. Hearing aids will make the background noise louder unless your hearing care professional has optimized your hearing aids with digital noise reduction and directional microphones and your hearing aids have been programmed properly to your hearing loss prescription using Real Ear Measurement.
Hopefully this concept makes sense to you. You need to make sure that you have really good hearing aids that can do this for you because hearing aids from back in the day couldn't do a really good job of it. And if you do already have hearing aids and you struggle in these background noise environments because you feel the background noise is being amplified too much, make sure that you go back to your hearing care professional and make sure that they're optimizing your digital features inside of your hearing aids.
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