January 2011 – New CROS solution for unilateral hearing losses

For people with a hearing loss in one ear that can not be helped with a hearing aid Phonak CROS provides a versatile and effective solution. The pleasing and compact design offers full bandwidth audio transmission from the affected ear to the better ear.

People with unilateral hearing loss have severe hearing loss in one ear which cannot be relieved by means of a hearing instrument. Sounds and speech can barely be perceived, if at all, on the side of the unaidable ear and it is not possible to filter out background noise.

CROS (Contralateral Routing of Signals) solutions even out auditory perception by redirecting sound signals transmitted to the unaidable ear to the better ear.
If the better ear is also affected by a loss of hearing, a hearing aid can pick up the sound signal and amplify these. This is referred to as a BiCROS solution.

The CROS transmitter redirects the audio signal at full bandwidth from the unaidable ear to the hearing instrument (receiver) in the other ear. The CROS technology does not require any additional internal or external components that take up unnecessary space and could break.
 

The new Phonak CROS solution is compatible with the full range of new wireless Spice hearing aids. This allows the user to benefit from innovative Phonak features such as SoundFlow, Real Ear Sound and UltraZoom with SNR-Boost, SoundRecover and FlexControl.

As well as normal hearing, the new Phonak CROS solution can accommodate all levels of hearing loss in the better ear. It offers an individually adapted solution for every user - regardless of their degree of hearing loss, their budget or their lifestyle.

October 2010 – Phonak launches Spice Generation chipset

Phonak announces the new Spice Generation chipset that far surpasses the technology in the CORE processing platform used for the Exelia Art series hearing aids.

The chipset sets new standards when it comes to hearing aid technology: 16 million transistors packed in 65 nanometer chip technology, offering an ultra fast processing speed of over 200 million operations per second.

May 2010 - Phonak introduces state of the art technology across all price segments.

With CORE (Communication Optimized Real-audio Engine) Phonak offers an industry leading platform for audio processing. All of Phonak’s current products are based on the CORE microprocessor, one of the fastest and most powerful processors in the hearing aid market place. It enables innovative technologies such as SoundFlow (automatic functionality), WhistleBlock (feedback control) and ZoomControl (control of hearing focus).

A highlight CORE feature is SoundRecover, which expands audibility, improving hearing of conversations in a restaurant, the laughing of children, birdsong or even quiet whispers. In addition, CORE enables the wireless connection to communication or entertainment devices such as telephones, TV sets, MP3 players or a PC.

With the introduction of the new Versata Art and Certena Art hearing aids, the benefits of SoundRecover (Frequency Compression) have been extended across most of the Phonak product range. High performance hearing aid solutions can now be tailored to individual lifestyles and budgets.

October 2009 - Phonak introduces the smallest wireless hearing system in the market (Audeo SMART).

Audeo SMART offers maximum performance and unlimited connectivity to a wide range of communication and entertainment devices such as telephones, TV sets, MP3 players and PC’s, thus enabling demanding users of hearing systems to lead an active life.

Audeo SMART also offers flexible control options: It can be operated directly at the ear via a push button which can be configured as a program selector or a volume control. Alternatively, the hearing system can be operated via the myPilot remote control.

ZoomControl allows for easy selection of hearing focus direction, especially beneficial in the car or in other situations in which the hearing aidwearer cannot face the speaker.

October 2009 - Phonak introduces the smallest non-wireless CRT hearing System (Audeo MINI).

Audeo MINI is the latest and worldwide smallest non-wireless CRT hearing aid system. It is almost invisible when worn behind the ear and impresses with its tiny size and attractive design. In addition, the new housing supports directional beamforming technology, for crystal-clear speech intelligibility and for improved suppression of background noise.

Audeo MINI is very easy to live with; thanks to the multi-program automatic SoundFlow, the hearing system adapts to the ever-changing environment in real time and without the need to push any buttons. Audeo MINI is ideal for users who seek a high-performance yet discreet and easy to use hearing aid solution.
 

October 2010 – Oticon makes previously advanced digital hearing aid technology available on mid range systems with the new Acto Pro and Acto ranges.

March 2010 - Oticon launches the Agil and Agil Pro.

The new Oticon Agil reduces cognitive effort needed to understand speech, leaving more energy to engage in life."Researchers have long been aware that preserving as much of the original signal as possible is key to reducing the listening effort and revolutionizing speech intelligibility," states Oticon President Peer Lauritsen. "In essence, this is what Agil brings within reach." With Agil's Spatial Sound 2.0 comes an advanced binaural processing system that preserves naturally occurring spatial cues for improved Signal to Noise Ratio.

MAY 2010

Widex launch the Mind 220 hearing aid.

June 2010 - Siemens has simplified its product range with the launch the Pure and Life series Hearing Aids available in four configurations from the top of the range 701 to the essential level 101. Motion hearing aids are available as 701, 501, 300 and 100

BestSound™ Technology

• ReSound Alera 61: with size 312 battery and wireless connectivity options
• ReSound Alera 60: with size 10 battery.

2009 - ReSound launch the ReSound Live™ Hearing Aid series. Just like going from a set of stereo speakers to a fully customised surround sound system, ReSound Live provides a greater sense of awareness - of "being there". Because of the new innovative surround sound by resound technology platform ReSound Live hearing aids deliver fuller, richer sound quality than any other hearing aid. The ReSound Live Hearing Aid improves localisation and speech understanding in noise. It simply gives your hearing a surround sound experience!

2009 - Unitron Launch the Revolutionary FUSE hearing aid. The Fuse hearing aid enables cic fitting of a hearing aid without the need for impressions. Th Fuse Hearing Aid has a revolutionary articulated ball joint mid away along its body enabling ease of fitting, excellent comfort and almost invisible results. Two parallel vents along the side of the hearing aids prevent issues with the occlusion effect.

April 15, 2010 — Starkey Laboratories, Inc.is excited to introduce S Series™ iQ, featuring Voice iQ, a new noise reduction and speech preservation system. Developed over three years at the Starkey Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, Calif., Voice iQ is noise reducing technology so fast and smart it reduces noise between syllables of speech — overcoming one of the most common complaints of hearing aid wearers."Voice iQ truly takes hearing aid technology to a new level," said Jerry Ruzicka, President of Starkey. Voice iQ uses a two-part algorithm — dynamic voice identification paired with a spectral noise control that calculates appropriate gain on a per channel basis. The result is unprecedented sound quality, ease of listening and intelligibility of speech in noise. Coupled with InVision Directionality, which boasts the highest diffuse field DI scores and lowest operational noise floor available, Voice iQ is proven to preserve speech understanding in noise. The system classifies inputs every six milliseconds and adapts every 20 milliseconds, to diminish noise between syllables.

Bernafon launches Veras 9, 7 and 5; the next generation of ChannelFree™ hearing systems.

Advanced and proven hearing system technology no longer needs to be exclusive to the premium hearing aid segment.

Veras 9, 7 and 5 offers the Bernafon proprietary high-resolution ChannelFree™ signal processing combined with advanced multi-environment technology and binaural communication in three price categories.

The result is a hearing system that supplies excellent auditory scene fidelity, best speech understanding and a clear, natural sound. Veras 9, 7 and 5 is extremely versatile with six instrument styles at three levels of performance and price.

Wireless Bluetooth® connectivity to sound sources such as cellular phones, TV’s and landline phones via SoundGate makes Veras an effective and flexible hearing aid system.