Take a Moment with Widex’s New Hearing Aids
Widex are releasing their latest line of hearing aids – the Moment devices. There are many things to like about this new offering from the Danish company, including no delay in the signal processing of sound - the first hearing aid to offer this feature.
Let’s investigate this technology, and the other Moment features, to see why this hearing aid is particularly exciting for users.
ZeroDelay
Widex’s reasoning behind this technology is to get past why hearing aids always sound like hearing aids. And that’s due to the signal processing delay. This means current hearing aid technology takes time (a very short amount of time, usually less than 11 milliseconds) to take what you hear, process it to meet your hearing requirements, then send the sound to your auditory system.
The delay can cause an echo as the sound entering your ear through your hearing aid is out of sync with the sound entering your ear normally. Your brain, over time, gets used to this, but Widex wanted to get this delay, and subsequent echo, as close to zero as possible. Doing this would make the hearing aid processed sound, sound natural and normal.
The ZeroDelay Accelerator in the Widex Moment cuts the processing delay to under 0.5 milliseconds, allowing natural and processed sound to hit your eardrum at around the same time. Widex call this sound experience PureSound.
Lise Henningsen, Global Head of Audiology at Widex explains, “Widex Moment doesn’t just allow you to hear better, it restores one’s sense of perfectly natural hearing, as you remember it before any loss occurred.”
No delay in the signal processing of the Widex Moment is supported by TruAcoustics™ which is able to make use of the natural venting of the ear canal, when the hearing aid is in your ear. This means you’ll get a better fit of the hearing aid, matching the individual resonance of your ear canal and utilising this for natural hearing.
Extra Moments for Widex
The Moment line of hearing aids offer a number of other features. Starting with Lithium-ion rechargeability. The charger has a slimline design, making it a discreet accessory for the hearing aid.
Bluetooth streaming for music and audio, with direct connection to Apple devices is standard, with Widex saying Android connection will be available in the future.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the well-known Widex machine learning technology is part of the Moment. The exceptional SoundSense Learn smartphone app takes the information from AI and machine learning to personalise your hearing experience.
SoundSense Learn will create hearing programs based on your typical listening situations, to ensure smooth transitions as you move through your daily soundscape. This information can be shared directly back to your Audiologist or Audiometrist to adjust your hearing aids as required.
There are six styles in the Moment family, with three Receiver in the Canal (RIC) – including the mRIC (the world’s smallest rechargeable RIC) and three In the Ear (ITE) hearing aids – with a choice of 13 colours. All members of the Moment family have water-resistant nano coating and durable microphones to reduce the risk of damage from moisture.
A Perfect Moment
Widex has merged natural hearing technology with rechargeability, streaming capability and AI to customise listening experiences to create a ‘perfect Moment’.
The platform has been laid for these devices which should be available in Australia at Hearing Centre near you soon.