965 White Plains Road
Trumbull, CT 06611
Features of Hearing Aids
All models of hearing aids are available in analog, digitally programmable, and fully digital versions.
Analog hearing aids
In an analog hearing aid, a microphone picks up the sound waves and converts them to an electrical signal. This signal is amplified and filtered in analog form. The receiver, or loudspeaker, converts the amplified electric signals into sound waves by means of a vibrating membrane and transmits the sound to the ear.
Analog hearing aids
In an analog hearing aid, a microphone picks up the sound waves and converts them to an electrical signal. This signal is amplified and filtered in analog form. The receiver, or loudspeaker, converts the amplified electric signals into sound waves by means of a vibrating membrane and transmits the sound to the ear.
Digitally programmable hearing aids
These instruments are programmed using an external computer, or programming device, and special software. The signal is processed in the analog mode. Modifications to the signal processing are made using a digital programming interface.
Fully digital hearing aids
In a digital hearing aid, the analog signal is converted to a digital signal. The conversion to digital format allows the signal processor to modify the signal in very sophisticated ways. Once the digital signal has been modified by the digital signal processor it is converted back to an analog format and transmitted to the ear as sound.
The digitization process makes it possible to analyze and filter the signal to improve speech perception in noisy environments. The incoming signal is measured, or "sampled," at certain intervals. The more frequently the signal is sampled, the better the reproduction of the input signal.
Increasingly complex sound processing, such as speech recognition technology, requires digital signal processing. This technology actually recognizes the unique patterns of speech and reduces the volume of frequencies where no speech is detected. When the competing signal is continuous noise, such as fans or car noise, the noise reduction algorithms become an important part of the signal processing that improves understanding.