Sonic Innovations

Hearing Aid Technology Reduces Effect of Background Noise

January 2002

Editor: I thought that headline might get your attention ;-). Difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise is the number one complaint of people with hearing loss. Now Sonic Innovations claims that independent tests have demonstrated the effectiveness of their Personalized Noise Reduction(TM) technology in decreasing the effect of background noise. Here are portions of their press release.

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Sonic Innovations Inc. (Nasdaq: SNCI), a leading producer of advanced digital hearing aids announced that an independent clinical study has demonstrated that its NATURA(TM) 2 SE products help hearing impaired people to understand speech better in noisy environments.

The study was conducted at the Department of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a world renowned hearing aid research facility headed by Dr. Michael Valente, professor and director of adult audiology.

The Washington University study determined that NATURA 2 SE hearing aids, which contain the company's proprietary Personalized Noise Reduction(TM) technology, enabled hearing impaired subjects to understand speech significantly better in challenging listening environments with background noise.

This is the first digital hearing aid of its kind that has been clinically proven to achieve this level of performance in the smallest, most cosmetically pleasing hearing aid sizes available today.

Greg Koskowich, Ph.D., vice president of research and development of Sonic Innovations, added that the latest findings are consistent with the company's own research, which was first reported in The Hearing Review, November 2000 issue.