The development of hearing aids – the history of hearing aids

Hearing aid development–History of hearing aids

In recent years, with the rapid development of sound and power technology, the “digital” hearing aid has been introduced, and the digital signal processing capability is extremely strong, providing greater flexibility for the selection.

The main components of hearing aids include microphones, amplifiers and receivers. The microphone picks up the sound of nature and converts it into an electrical signal. The amplifier selectively amplifies the sound. The receiver is a very small speaker that converts the electrical signal into sound and then into the human ear.

With the development of acoustics, electronics and computer technology, hearing aids have entered a stage of unprecedented high-speed development; now, in the future, how hearing aids will change and develop, we may wish to make a brief review and review:

The book “Hearing Aids” concludes that the demand for hearing aids will become larger and larger in the future, and its development trend will inevitably develop in the direction of digitization. Digital hearing aids will face enormous challenges in new technologies. The following areas are likely to have significant development potential in the future:

1Energy consumption will further decline. Reduce energy consumption by using more calculations or maintaining existing computing power within existing energy consumption, or using smaller batteries.

2The number of components in the fixed area of ​​the chip is increased, so that more complicated signal processing can be performed on the chip area, or the number of components can be kept constant to further reduce the chip, and the operation speed thereof will further decrease.

3Future technologies can etch tiny mechanical devices together with electronic components on a chip, called a microelectromechanical system. Applying this technique to hearing aids may help reduce the size and energy consumption of hearing aids.

4New ideas have been made for the selection of hearing aids, such as three-dimensional imaging of external auditory canal by ultrasound imaging. Therefore, the custom-made hearing aid housing can be manufactured instead of the conventional ear-taking technology. At present, the technology has been put into practice, and it is expected that we can immediately see the new hearing aid technology results.

5Other: Integrate the power of the computer into future hearing aids, such as digitally transmitting the noise-reduced remote microphone into the hearing aid’s computer, and combining the computer in the hearing aid with an all-digital mobile phone. Make the hearing aid have a phone function at the same time.