Digital Hearing Aids

Hearing aids have been around for hundreds of years. The first hearing aids were enormous, horn-shaped trumpets with a large, open piece at one end that collected sound. The trumpet gradually tapered into a thin tube that funneled the sound into the ear. In 1886, Thomas Edison invented the carbon transmitter, which changed sounds into electrical signals that could travel through wires and be converted back into sounds. This technology was used in the first carbon-type hearing aids which were introduced in 1898 by the Dictograph Company. For more than 100 years now, hearing aids have continued to change and adapt with the introduction of new technology and new demands from hearing aid users.

Digital Hearing Aids

With all the changes that hearing aids have gone through over the last century, perhaps the biggest change came recently with the introduction of digital hearing aids. Digital hearing aids use digital rather than analog processing. Digital means that the sound is converted to 1's and 0's and processed via computer rather than simpler analog processing. The first digital hearing aids were hybrid aids and only used digital processing for controlling various functions of the aid, but not for processing the actual sound, which remained analog. Today, most digital hearing aids are “full digital” and use digital processing not only for controlling the aid, but for the signal processing of the sound itself, much the way a CD player converts the 1's and 0's stored on the CD back to an analog signal representing the music.

Digital Hearing Aid Advantages

Digital hearing instruments are able to create advanced signal processing schemes that non-digital instruments simply aren't capable of. Additionally, digital instruments can perform multiple sound processing and management tasks efficiently and simultaneously. For example, digital technology has the capability of determining which signals are most speech-like and which sounds are noises. Once a digital hearing aid determines differences it can be programmed to essentially amplify the speech-like noises, while trying to reduce unwanted background noises for a more comfortable listening experience. Another advantage that leads more and more people to choose digital hearing aids today is their capability to control and manage feedback. Digital technology allows the instrument to determine when the annoying whistling noise of feedback is going to occur, and then virtually eliminate it.

SportEAR

With the introduction of this advanced digital technology, the hearing aid market is expanding beyond the hearing impaired. Today, hunters and outdoorsmen alike are using digital hearing aids to enhance their outdoor experience. Whether looking to more fully enjoy the sounds of nature or to improve the sense of hearing for a greater advantage while hunting, the SportEAR digital hearing aid is exactly what you need. The SportEAR hearing aid can enhance a hunters hearing up to 8 times for a more successful hunt. A SportEar hearing aid uses digital hearing aid technology to enhance the quiet sounds of nature, and compress the dangerously noisy sounds of a rifle. With SportEAR, outdoorsmen can enjoy amazing high-end hearing aid technology and state of the art hearing protection in a single device.