Hearing instruments
What is a Hearing instrument?
At
the most basic level, a hearing instrument is a miniature sound amplifier. It receives sounds through
a microphone, converts them to electrical impulses, amplifies the impulses, and converts them back into
sound.
Different kinds of hearing losses
But
if a hearing instrument were to do only that, it would be of very limited use. It would simply amplify
all incoming sounds equally. This would be ineffective, because all hearing losses are different. Some
people lose hearing in the high frequencies, some in the middle or low frequencies – hearing loss patterns
are as unique as thumbprints. People with hearing loss also have widely varying comfort levels when
it comes to the loudness of various sounds.
That is why a hearing instrument
must be highly selective in how it amplifies sound for its user.
Digital
quality
The advent of digital hearing instruments made highly personalized fitting
possible. Hearing care professionals feed hearing test results into a computer, which is used to adjust
hearing instruments for a user’s particular needs. The hearing instruments then converts sounds into
digital code, manipulates the code according to the user’s programmed needs, and re-convert it into
“CD” quality sound.
The evolution of the hearing instrument
Over
the last 15 years, hearing instruments have been transformed from very large, very visible sound amplifiers
to miniature high performances. So today, it is often impossible to see that someone is wearing a hearing
instrument.
