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28/02/2024

29/01/2024

The study authors had the subjects perform a Hearing in Noise Test, commonly known as HINT, where patients were read various sentences in Mandarin like “the electricity bills went up recently” and were asked to repeat them verbatim. They completed these tests either wearing the different headphones and hearing aids, both in quiet settings and environments with background noise. Unsurprisingly, the premium hearing aid provided the best assistance. The AirPods 2 weren’t able to provide the same quality as the other devices, but the researchers found that the earbuds were better than wearing no hearing device at all. The AirPods Pro, however, performed just as well as the basic hearing aids in a quiet environment.

29/01/2024

For their study, the researchers worked with a pool of 21 patients in Taiwan—whose average age was 41—with mild to moderate hearing loss. They tested Apple’s Live Listen feature, which utilizes the iPhone’s microphone to transmit audio directly to Bluetooth-paired AirPods in real time. The feature has been used to listen in on hard-to-hear sounds like bird calls or quiet speakers in a big lecture hall (and sometimes for eavesdropping). But it could also double as an assistive hearing device by amplifying sounds in noisy environments. “It’s actually pretty fun,” says Cheng. “You can use this function in a very noisy cocktail party to talk to your friends, but you can actually use it as a very good assistive device if you want to get a better signal out of the noise.” When used with the noise-canceling AirPods Pro, Live Listen can boost conversation volumes while maintaining safe-listening levels, filter in some outside noises to heighten awareness through “transparent mode,” and play calming sounds that can relieve tinnitus (a constant ringing in one’s ear). It just so happens that these accessibility features also benefit those with hearing loss.

29/01/2024

An array of assistive hearing devices, many of which don’t require a prescription, have been exploding on the market—but they come with different benefits. For instance, personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) aren’t intentionally designed as a hearing tool, but happen to amplify audio in ways that might help certain patients.

Cheng and his collaborators wanted to see if Apple AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro, which cost $129 and $249, respectively, could be a more affordable and stylish option for individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss, who’d be served by situational boosts in hearing quality. “These people are like patients who are nearsighted and don’t think they need to use eyeglasses, but whenever they use it all the words are so clear,” he says.