Bluetooth Hearing Aid: A Modern Day Magical Solution

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Information Age has not been the same ever since Bluetooth technology made its appearance because this new technology has removed the need for making wired connections and thus has done away with a vast jungle of wires while still being able to get information across devices. Some people even consider Bluetooth technology as being the equivalent of modern day magic and nowhere are the benefits as noticeable as in the case of the Bluetooth hearing aid.

Smallest Devices

Today, Bluetooth hearing aids are the smallest devices that have, in fact, transformed the concept of how hearing aids work, especially the traditional behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids. In fact, with a Bluetooth hearing aid you can be a hearing impaired person while still being able to fully enjoy sounds that are crystal clear that are transmitted over mobile phones. What’s more, with a Bluetooth hearing aid, you can connect wirelessly to computers, MP3 players as well as even HDTV and thus you can perform other chores while at the same time using these various devices.

Essentially, the Bluetooth hearing aid requires fastening an ELI (ear level instrument) to an audio input connection (direct) that is situated behind the hearing aid whose microphone receiver and transmitter then converses with a BTE and turns it into a Bluetooth hearing aid that can then communicate with several other devices as long as they are also Bluetooth enabled. In addition, an ELI Bluetooth hearing aid is easy to operate and you only need to use a single button to either reject or accept an incoming call which means that you don’t need to touch your cell phone at all.

Thanks to present day advances in technology used in ear level instruments, it is now possible for cell phones to ring straight into your Bluetooth hearing aid and all that is required to do so is to have a module via which every call gets channeled. As somebody who is using a Bluetooth hearing aid, you only need to press a button on this module which will then enable you to answer as well as hang up a call without needing to perform any other action. In fact, this module also has the capability of sensing when the caller has terminated their call and it will then automatically cut the connection for you.

Actually, you can also still use your Bluetooth hearing aid with ELI as long as you are using a neck loop that is connected to a telecoil in your hearing aid. In fact, with this feature, the module can effectively transmit from a distance of thirty-three feet. Also, both ELI modules and ELIs are able to run from their own batteries and they do not use any energy from your BTE.

Get More Out Of the Products through Costco Hearing Aid Warranty

Monday, May 19, 2008

Hearing loss can affect any age. You may not realize it but there will come a time when your hearing will suddenly falter. Hearing aids are designed to help you in such situations. But how can you be sure that the product will last? The Costco hearing aid warranty would provide the security you need for your hearing care. There are several products from the company but they have just recently provided hearing aids in several of their centers. All of their hearing care products are bundled with a Costco hearing aid warranty. These warranties are only available for a specific duration. However, you should not be worried about this since the Costco hearing aid warranty can last for up to three years.

One of their products that are bundled with the Costco hearing aid warranty is the Kirkland Signature Premium Hearing Aids. Before you get these hearing aids, you must first be tested for substantial hearing loss. After that, you will be fitted with the hearing aid and have the product programmed by a licensed professional. These services are offered by Costco through their Hearing Aid Centers.

The Costco hearing aid warranty for the Kirkland Signature Premium Hearing Aids includes a three year replacement and repair warranty. This means that if ever your hearing aid needs service, there is an available repair and replacement program to get your hearing back on track. This process is also done while you wait.

Aside from the Costco hearing aid warranty for the mentioned hearing aid product, it is also accompanied by an accessory kit. The kit includes the two premium hearing aids that are designed with an open-fit technology. The hearing aids are also programmed with settings for various listening environments. Additionally, the kit contains domes, tubes and utilities for cleaning allowing proper maintenance. There is also the dryer for the hearing aids, which is used to safely and effectively remove moisture. Whenever one or more of these inclusions get damaged, you can use the three-year Costco hearing aid warranty for the replacement or repair.

Different Styles for Hearing Aids

Aside from the Kirkland Signature Premium Hearing Aids, there are also several hearing care products available. They are specifically designed to meet the customer’s specifications and provide different styles. One of the styles is the Open Fit, which is designed for people with mild to moderately or profound hearing loss. The Open Fit style is worn behind the ear with a thin tube to the ear allowing natural sounds. There is also the Behind the Ear style specifically designed for mild to intense loss of hearing. This kind of style is worn at the back of the ear and attached to an ear mold customized to fit. All the hearing aids with varying styles are accompanied with a Costco hearing aid warranty to establish customer satisfaction.

Digital Hearing Aid Design: The State-Of-The-Art Solution for Hearing Loss

Sunday, May 18, 2008

During the last five years, there has been an explosion of digital hearing aids on the market. To date, there are twenty-two manufacturers for digital hearing aids. The digital hearing aid was first introduced before the end of the 1980s. Back then, hearing aids used digital signal processing or DSP, which became the basic framework for the recent digital hearing aid. The evolution of digital hearing aid design made it possible for digital hearing aids to be incorporated with the several types of hearing aids such as behind-the-ear (BTE) and completely-in-the-canal (CIC) styles.

The digital hearing aid design simply constitutes the conversion of analogue waveform into a string of numbers for processing. Additionally, digital hearing aid design in the term of using digital signal processing allows several manufacturers to proving hearing loss solutions with enhanced processing and features.

Compared with the traditional analog hearing aid, the amount of processing that can be done through the digital hearing aid design is impressive. The aids have a combination of several features such as: two to fourteen frequency bands bundled with crossover frequencies that could be adjusted, a single microphone, dual microphones allowing directional listening, reduction in the background noise, speech enhancement, reduction in feedback, protection from loud sounds, and the automatic gain control or AGC. Through the digital hearing aid design, the processing of sounds binaurally, filtering in the ear canal, reverberation lessening and supplying of direct digital input from a digital telephone and other devices were given the possibility.

The digital hearing aid design also suggests the possibility of customizing the hearing aid algorithms or features without changing the hearing aid itself.

The Elements of the Digital Hearing Aid Design

The digital hearing aid design consists of primary elements that are used for a DSP-based digital hearing aid. Typically, the design includes three semiconductor die that are stacked on top of each other. Additionally, the semiconductors contain modules such as: EEPROM or non-volatile memory, digital device and the analog device. Recently, the mentioned modules can be integrated into one or two semiconductor die. Also included in the digital hearing aid design is the battery usage of the hearing aid. The typical digital hearing aid would operate at 0.9V though there are some that implement the use of power management to monitor battery voltage. This method from other digital hearing aid designs alert the user whenever the battery is getting reasonably low and automatically shuts the aid down when the voltage is too low.
Analog hearing aids consume about 0.7 mA to 1.0 mA while digital aids consume 0.5 mA to 0.7 mA. Basing on the power consumption of the digital hearing aid, analog hearing aids also consume approximately equal amounts of power.

Understanding Digital Hearing Aid Differences

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Hearing aids have come a long way through the years. The differences between digital hearing aids of today and the old-fashioned trumpet held to the ear of decades ago are enormous. As hearing aids shrank to fit first behind the ear, and later inside the ear, it was only a matter of time before a digital hearing aid made a difference in the hearing aid industry.

What's Different About Digital Hearing Aids?

The differences in digital hearing aids from analog hearing aids are similar to the difference between analog telephones and digital phones. Analog phones worked by transmitting sound waves, and analog hearing aids worked the same way. Digital phones work by sending a digital signal – ones and zeroes – and that is also how digital hearing aids work.

The difference between a digital hearing aid and an analog hearing aid is in the way the acoustic input information is coded and processed. Digital speech processing is considered to be a superior technology over other methods of speech processing. Digital processing means a computer, not a mechanical device, does the processing. Computer programmers have proven that computers are good at performing routine, repetitive tasks. Converting sound to a digital signal and processing the signal is one of those routine tasks at which computers excel. Digital speech processing is a big difference in digital hearing aids, because it is the digitizing of the process that enables computers to be able to understand the commands required to amplify and transmit sound.

Adapting To Different Environments

Another difference between a digital hearing aid and a hearing aid that uses old technology is that a digital hearing aid can be adjusted to adapt to different environments. A digital hearing aid can adapt from an environment with a noisy background to the environment of a person watching television at home alone in a quiet room. Digital sound processing is simply more sophisticated than other technologies.

Lower Power Requirements

Digital hearing aids also require less power needs than their analog counterparts. This saves the user not only the cost of batteries, but also the inconvenience of changing batteries, and the indignity and disappointment of missing out on a conversation. Analog hearing aids rely on custom circuitry; they cannot be custom programmed, and they cost more.

A digital hearing aid is the best hearing aid for seniors who are losing their hearing due to aging. Digital sound processing provides the sophisticated sound management techniques that do more than merely amplify sound. Digital hearing aids make a difference because they process the signal based on speech patterns and do not just turn up the volume.

All About The Hearing Aid

Friday, May 16, 2008

Hearing impairment can have a significantly adverse effect on your life since it closes down your abilities to hear normally or even appreciate nature’s natural acoustic richness. However, because of rapid advancement in present day technology, you can overcome your hearing disability through use of a wonderful and small device known as the hearing aid.

Small In Size, Big In Power

Though a hearing aid is small in size, it packs a lot of power as it helps in restoring a person’s ability to hear normally in a flexible manner which means that it is possible to adjust the volume of the sound according to needs and also to adjust the hearing aid’s performance according to different environments.

In addition, there are a number of different kinds of hearing aids to choose from though before buying any particular such aid you should take the advice of a professional and even have hearing tests performed to determine the level of distress so that an appropriate solution can be recommended.

There are many technically advanced hearing aids available which can provide many benefits to users though before opting for one of these you need to weigh your options carefully and even follow the advice of those who have already used various kinds of hearing aids. In fact, you could even consider using custom hearing aids that though they cost more, will at the same time suit your individual requirements exactly.

Another factor that you must consider before choosing a hearing aid is the type of hearing loss that you are suffering from. It could be conductive hearing loss in which you may experience problems with your ear, or sensorineural hearing loss where the problem lies within your inner ear and there is also mixed hearing loss which obviously is a combination of conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss.

A conventional hearing aid is one that simply amplifies sounds in order for the sound to become audible enough to be heard by the wearer and common variants of it are behind-the-ear (BTE), or in-the-ear (ITE), or even inside-the-ear-canal or CIC hearing devices. Furthermore, the hearing aid can either be digital or analog with the latter being cheaper though they don’t have as many features as are found in the digital type that also provide clearer sounds.

You may also want to choose from features such as dual microphones, telecoils as well as implants when it comes to choosing the best hearing aid. The latest innovation has to do with what is called an earglass which does not use any kind of electronics to magnify the sound and is generally worn behind the ear. It works in a manner similar to when a person cups his hands around his ears and it is also a natural means of amplifying sounds though it is most suited when your hearing loss is only mild as it cannot provide enough gain to amplify very feeble sounds.

Hearing Aid Accessories Will Help To Keep Up Performance As Well As Extend Life Of Your Hearing Aids

Thursday, May 15, 2008

If you have become hard of hearing or have difficulty following simple conversations, your hearing disability will require using hearing aids in order to restore your normal hearing. Because of vast improvements in the technology and design of modern hearing aids, today they have become small enough to fit into the wearer’s ears and thus they can be used without letting others know that you are suffering from hearing impairment.

Need To Take Good Care Of Your Hearing Aid

Hearing aids also come with their own amplifiers, mics as well as speakers and they can provide wearers with louder as well as clearly audible sounds which can even prove to very helpful when conducting a conversation over the telephone despite having a hearing impairment. However, there is also a pressing need for you to take good care of your hearing aid and to help you do just that you can make use of several hearing aid accessories that are easily available on the market today.

Of course, the most important of all hearing aid accessories would no doubt be the hearing aid’s battery and in fact, there are several different types of such batteries that you can use to power up your hearing aid. However, these small hearing aid accessories also have a certain time period for which they are guaranteed to perform and since they are the most important accessory that helps to ensure that your hearing aid works to its optimum level of performance, you need to use an accessory that can show you how much power is left in your hearing aid’s battery.

Thus, you ought to choose a very useful hearing aid accessory such as battery testers that can check and determine whether your hearing aid’s batteries are working at proper levels or not and thus help you replace them whenever they are on the brink of losing their power.

Another useful hearing aid accessory that you may wish to use is the customized ear molds that help in reducing feedback and this accessory is also well suited for use with behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids since they considerably lower barrel sound. And, if you experience problems with fitting your hearing aid into the ear properly, you can use comply strips that will help in fitting the hearing aid more snugly into your ears. You may also want to consider using sweat bands which are other useful hearing aid accessories that you can use with good effect because they help to keep your hearing aid safe from moisture.

Hearing aids also need to be cleaned and to do so, you may need hearing aid accessories such as special solutions that help remove the dirt as well as wetness from your hearing aid and this will ensure getting better performance as well as making your hearing aid last longer. In addition, you will also need hearing aid accessories to remove wax from your hearing aid’s speaker and there are also wax springs that can be used in order to further protect your hearing aid.

To sum up, keeping your hearing aid functioning properly is something that you should not shy away from and so, by just spending a few extra dollars in purchasing necessary hearing aid accessories, it will help to ensure better performance out of your hearing aid as well as extend its life as well.

The Life Of Hearing Aid Batteries Depends On Size As Well As Usage

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Today, there are a diverse number of hearing aids available on the market and each embody different and latest technologies and they are also different in how they perform and also how they look. The different features in hearing aids determine what the hearing aid can and cannot do and this in turn will have an effect on the life of hearing aid batteries. Thus, the first thing that you need to consider when using your hearing aid is to determine how long normal hearing aid batteries last.

They All Look Alike

The fact of the matter is that on first glance it is hard to distinguish one hearing aid battery from another though they are color coded to provide a clue as to the type of hearing aid batteries that they are. Thus a color code that consists of a blue tab means that the battery is C size six hundred and seventy-five while a yellow tab means that the battery is of C type with size ten and a brown tab signifies that the battery is C with size three hundred and twelve. Lastly, an orange tab means that the battery is C size thirteen.

Next, you need to establish which type of hearing aid batteries are required for your hearing aid and then you need to find out how long such batteries can give you reliable power to keep your hearing aid working properly. Mostly, the expected life of hearing aid batteries should be from two to a few weeks though it also depends on how long you use your hearing aid on a daily basis, the functionality of the hearing aid and also the type of hearing aid.

If you opt for behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids, you will find them to be convenient as far as proper listening goes, but they do tend to drain out the hearing aid batteries much faster than other types of hearing aids.

Hearing aid batteries are generally small in size and of a round shape and they are very similar in appearance to the batteries used to power up wrist watches. Furthermore, the size of the hearing aid batteries has a direct effect on how long they will last and so, it would be a better idea to use larger sized batteries if you want them to last longer. Still, if you use your hearing aid very often and also adjust the volume a lot, these will directly impact the longevity of the hearing aid batteries and so, you should take into account this factor as well when evaluating how long the batteries are going to last you.