The Advancements in Widex Hearing Aids
Widex believes that everyone’s hearing is as unique as their fingerprint, and your hearing aids can be too. They believe in a world of no barriers to communication; a world where people interact effortlessly, freely and confidently. Widex has sixty years of experience within the hearing aid industry. With their state-of-the-art technology, they provide hearing solutions that are easy to use, seamlessly integrated in daily life and enable people to hear naturally.
The Widex Moment hearing aids have been revolutionary as they changed the game to deliver pure and natural sounds. Typically, hearing aids must pick up the sounds and process them. This process can introduce a delay before reaching the eardrum, different from sounds heard directly. When we have this delay, these two ‘out of sync’ signals can produce an artificial unnatural sound. This timing difference causes the comb-filter effect, where peaks and troughs form in the sound wave. Sounds adding together and mixing out of phase cancelling each other out can result in poor sound quality. With their new sound experience, PureSoundTM , now you can hear now you can hear every moment like you used to in real time. This is powered by their ZeroDelay technology. It dramatically decreases the processing time through the hearing aid to below 0.5ms, which means the comb-filter effect is practically eliminated. By matching the two sound sources, the end user experience is pure, natural, uncompromised and transparent. This technology has gained widespread popularity among musicians, along with other features that Widex offers within their technology.
Widex also uses their Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven technology, Widex My Sound, with a portfolio of AI features. Widex was the first company to enable user-driven personalisation by introducing AI in hearing aids. The previous two generations of AI solutions within their chip, collected extensive data that allowed to learn various listening environments and what settings customers felt worked best in various listening situations. Now within My Sound, Widex launched the third generation of its AI technology, vastly improving the usability of the AI solution from the learning of the previous chips.
The new AI solution combines the capacity of the users’ personal real-world experience with the capacity pf the artificial intelligence to deliver a whole new level of automated customisation. Through the data collected over time and AI modelling, individuals can have sound profile recommendations made based on their intent, need and preferences of thousands of users in similar listening situations.
The Widex My Sound technology is integrated into the Widex MOMENT app which is the home to all the powerful AI driven solutions. The App has access to the cloud-based user data of Widex users worldwide to make sound profile recommendations in real time based on the individual’s current listening needs and listening intent. This can be variations between socialising in small or large groups, listening while sailing or hiking, or enjoying music to name a few scenarios. Based on the users’ selections, data points from tens of thousands of Widex users who have used the app previously in similar situations, are drawn to make real life changes in a matter of seconds. The user is presented with two recommendations, which can both be listened to before selecting a suitable setting that sounds best to them. If neither of the recommendations meet the individual’s needs, they can launch the SoundSense Learn to further personalise their hearing experience through the AI driven A/B testing process. Not only would you be finding a solution that suits you in real time, but you would also be contributing to the thousands of Widex users that may benefit from your tailoring of the sounds signal for that listening environment.
Widex has a palette of fractal sounds within Widex SoundRelaxTM , each designed to increase focus and relax the mind. Particularly used for individuals with tinnitus as part of their sound therapy program. Using sound in this way can help minimize the contrast between the tinnitus and the surrounding sound environment to provide relief from the tinnitus. The Widex SoundRelaxTM tones are based on fractal technology and play random, chime-like tones that can be used for relaxation and for making tinnitus less noticeable. Fractal technology is based on a mathematical algorithm that ensures there are no sudden changes in tonality or tempo. The tones repeat enough to sound familiar and follow appropriate rules but vary enough not to be predictable.
All these improvements in Widex’s technology can help improve our lives, including improving hearing now via hearing aids and apps. However, even if AI seems to be smarter than humans, remember that the system is trained by people, it will always need humans to give input, keep it updated and set the success criteria. Widex gives you more control over how you choose to hear whatever situation you find yourself in.
At Victorian Hearing we pride ourselves on delivering quality hearing healthcare and personalised hearing solutions. Our team of expert audiologists stay up to date with the latest developments in hearing technologies. To learn more about Widex hearing aids, reach out to the team at Victorian Hearing, your local, independent, and Australian owned and operated hearing clinic. With ten clinics across Melbourne, you can expect a friendly smile and support from the Victorian Hearing team. Call (03) 9558 8842 or book online.