Oticon will introduce a smartphone app in 2019 that automatically adjusts Oticon Opn hearing aids based on the user’s preferences and behavior. The company says artificial intelligence built into its new Kaizn app learns from a hearing aid wearer’s listening preferences, habits, and environments. It can then predict their preferences in a particular sound scenario and automatically adjust their hearing aid settings.
Billed as “the world’s first personal AI assistant for your ears,” the new product has already received a 2019 CES Best of Innovation Award in the Software and Mobile Apps category. “With Kaizn, we tap the full potential of data-driven personalized hearing care, using a combination of real-time local data, aggregated ‘big’ data and artificial intelligence,” said Annette Mazevski, Au.D., Ph.D., Manager, Technology Assessment at Oticon.
Learning From the Listening Environment
Kaizn collects and analyzes data from an individual’s listening environments to learn their behaviors and hearing preferences. Then it provides real-time hearing aid recommendations and adjustments. The app communicates with hearing aid wearers at key moments to learn what they want from different sound environments.
For example, the app will know when a hearing aid wearer enters a noisy environment, such as a loud restaurant. It will send the wearer a push notification to ask if the user wants either a “focus” or “comfort” setting to cope with the noise. Then it adjusts the hearing aid settings to reflect that preference.
Over time, Kaizn can automate adaptive changes based on the user’s feedback/validation and adjust the Opn™hearing aid settings automatically when they enter similar noise environments, the company said.
Oticon will preview Kaizn along with its Oticon Opn hearing aids at CES 2019 in Las Vegas in January.