Research Symposium

Editor: The Research Symposium at the HLAA Convention provides an opportunity for regular folks to learn about what's coming down the road for people with hearing loss. Catherine Palmer, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh, moderated this year's panel, which included representatives from all the major hearing aid manufacturers. Each panelist had ten minutes to present his company's latest technology, followed by ten minutes for questions.

This is part one of three parts.

Complete Convention Coverage

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Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three

Phonak LLC

The first presenter represented Phonak LLC, and focused on three technologies: Sound Recover, Zoom Control, and Duophone.

SoundRecover is the Phonak technology that shifts high frequencies that people often have trouble hearing to lower frequencies where they hear better. This often makes much more sense than amplifying frequencies at which a person has little or no hearing. This technology was originally provided to people with severe to profound hearing loss, but has since been expanded to people with mild to moderate losses, and is now available in all Phonak products. People generally report excellent sound quality with SoundRecover, although it may take them a week or two to get used to it.

ZoomControl is the Phonak directional microphone technology that allows the user to focus on sounds coming from any direction, not only those from the front as with conventional directional microphones. This technology is available in their premium products.

DuoPhone is the technology that provides for sound from a telephone to be sent to both ears, a technique that can greatly increase comprehension. This and other improvements are available because of the wireless communication that allows streaming from one hearing aid to the other.

Q. How does SoundRecover differ from the AVR [Ed. A competing manufacturer] algorithm?
A. We pick a cutoff frequency based upon the user's audiogram and shift only frequencies above that cutoff. The AVR algorithm shifts all frequencies.

Q. You've focused on a "typical" hearing loss, which is primarily a high frequency loss. I have a "cookie bite" loss. Are you doing any research that will help me?
A. Our instruments are very flexible and your dispenser should be able to program them to accommodate your loss.

Q. You mentioned that the hearing aids communicate wirelessly with each other. Can you talk more about that?
A. Yes. That technology is available in all but our basic models. An example of the communication is the DuoPhone, which I mentioned a minute ago. Another is the ability to attenuate the volume in the left hearing aid when you're using ZoomControl to focus on a sound on your right.

Q. I bought Phonak aids and loved all the things they did. But my audiologist didn't understand much of it. Phonak refuses to talk directly to consumers, so I wasn't able to use the aids. I returned them and bought Siemens. Have you thought about providing direct consumer support?
A. Like the other major manufacturers, we work through the hearing care professionals. We do have a consumer care line that can help you find an audiologist.

Q. Does everyone like SoundRecover?
A. Most people do, but not all. And some people take a week or two to get used to it. For those who don't like it, we can just turn it off.

Q. Do your aids that have DuoPhone also have telecoils?
A. Yes, but DuoPhone is only functional when the hearing aids are set to microphone or microphone plus telecoil. Otherwise the user would be cut off from the environment.

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Siemens

The next speaker was Thomas Powers of Siemens. He covered their Best Sound Technology, which includes Feedback Stopper, Speech Focus, and Sound Learning 2.

The goal of Feedback Stopper was to set a new standard for eliminating feedback in the presence of high gain. This has traditionally been accomplished by creating a signal of the same frequency and opposite phase to the offending signal. Feedback Stopper uses this strategy, and also "fingerprints" the feedback so the hearing aid can identify it. This strategy provides 28.5 db of additional gain, eclipsing the previous best of 24.5. This technology is available in all Siemens aids.

Speech Focus is Siemens' directional microphone strategy. It employs a a hypercardiod pattern for sounds from the front, a reverse hypercardiod for sounds from the rear, and an omni pattern for sounds from the sides. The switching is all done automatically.

Sound Learning 2 is actually the third generation of the Siemens technology that allows a hearing aid to learn the manual adjustments a user makes in various acoustic environments, and eventually start making those adjustments automatically.

Q. I'm wondering how someone using Speech Focus would know the sound is coming from behind them.
A. It's just a natural learning process, just like with other hearing aids.

Q. My hearing aids have earmolds, and I hear myself much louder than I hear others. Can my aids be changed to openfit, and would that solve this problem?
A. People who use earmolds often comment on that effect of the occlusion from the earmolds. Moving to openfit aids does solve that problem. But that may not be possible if your instruments have high gain. Also, you should check with your audiologist to see if it's possible to use your aids with an open fitting.

Q. Does Sound Learning automatically adjust anything besides volume?
A. Yes, it also handles compression characteristics.

Q. Our Manhattan Chapter had some money from our walk, and we wanted to install a loop in a local senior center. Unfortunately, only two of about 30 hearing aid users had telecoils, and only one knew how to use them. Do you encourage audiologists to install telecoils and teach people how to use them?
A. All of our hearing aids have telecoils unless they're just too small to accommodate them. We do train audiologists on their use, and hope the audiologists are doing their part.

Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three