VitaSound Audio, Inc., a young hearing-aid company in Canada, has come up with an entirely new approach to sound-processing software for hearing aids that could fundamentally change the way we think about compensating for damaged hearing. I got a demo of VitaSound’s Neuro-Compensator technology several months ago and have been struggling ever since to come up with appropriate words to describe it. “Unique,” “new,” “unprecedented” and “potentially revolutionary” are the best I can do for starters.
The Neuro-Compensator sound processing system is based on nearly two decades of research at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, into how the human brain comprehends the signals processed by the auditory system, from the middle ear through the auditory nerve. The researchers mapped the signals produced by hundreds of auditory inputs processed by people with healthy hearing, coming up with a hugely complex model of “normal” hearing response to sounds ranging from human speech to music to pure tones to rush-hour traffic to cocktail-party noise. Then they developed the Neuro-Compensator software to compare the norm to that of a person with damaged hearing, and to produce a hearing-aid amplification program that not only amplifies the frequencies where hearing has been lost, but also filters out sounds that a healthy auditory processing system would normally suppress. The benefit is better comprehension because the system constantly adjusts amplification at multiple frequencies in response to different sounds to match the auditory profile of a normal, healthy auditory system responding to various listening environments.
It’s a fundamentally different approach from the digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms used by most hearing-aid companies. Since the days of analog processors, the usual approach to hearing-loss correction has been simple, linear amplification at several frequencies where the user has suffered loss. Even today’s low-cost hearing aids only amplify at four bands. And although more sophisticated DSPs are available which can ultimately let the software drive amplification at up to 64 channels, the linear approach to amplification means all sounds at those frequencies are amplified. Therefore users often complain of over-amplification, especially of background noise that the brain’s more intelligent auditory processing system (when healthy) is able to suppress.
The Neuro-Compensator’s model of a healthy auditory processing system enables VitaSound to amplify the right sounds at the right time, and NOT amplify the wrong sounds that cause so much frustration for hearing-aid users. That translates into a potential solution to the Holy Grail of hearing aids: letting me once again comprehend conversation in a noisy cocktail party. The accompanying graphic above shows auditory maps for normal hearing and damaged hearing; it also shows the maps produced by a VitaSound hearing aid using the Neuro-Compensator, versus a hearing aid using standard, current-generation wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) software. The Neuro-Compensator map fills in the gaps in the map of the damaged ear without adding the extra amplification where the normal ear doesn’t want it, whereas the WDRC map shows more noise than the user wants.
VitaSound has a unique market delivery system for the software as well. Most hearing aids are programmed by the audiologist on site, using relatively simple programming tools provided by the manufacturer. VitaSound takes a different approach with the Neuro-Compensator, with the audiologist uploading the patient’s audiogram to VitaSound. There a powerful computer compares the user’s profile with the complex Neuro-Compensator healthy-hearing profile, and the Neuro-Compensator’s sound-processing algorithm produces the user’s unique program. The audiologist then downloads the program directly into the user’s hearing aid and performs any additional adjustments using an on-site programmer supplied by VitaSound.
How revolutionary is the Neuro-Compensator technology? A lot depends on how accurate and applicable VitaSound’s model of normal hearing is to all listening situations. The more complex the normal-hearing model, the better it will compensate for hearing damage and provide a unique program compensating for the user’s specific hearing loss and replicating normal hearing. In theory, with Moore’s Law dictating continued improvements in digital signal processing, Neuro-Compensator software should be able to continuously improve its normal-hearing model while enabling continuous improvements in sound processing to VitaSound’s hearing aids. In practice, much will depend on real-world user experience. VitaSound has plenty of anecdotal evidence from their very first users who have been struck by the improvement over their old hearing aids. But because VitaSound still is in the very early stages of broadly rolling out its Neuro-Compensator hearing aids, it will be a while before a critical mass of customers can testify to their superiority, and still longer before clinical trials can provide further documentary proof.
Just as important, the company has a marketing and distribution challenge. The global hearing-aid market is dominated by a few major manufacturers who distribute their products through a channel of professional dispensers and audiologists who often are loyal to the brands they are accustomed to fitting. Many fitters are averse to changing horses when the one they are riding is providing them with a good business and reasonably satisfied patients. So any new entrant into the hearing-aid market has to provide an easily demonstrable performance improvement and/or comparable performance at a much lower price that will get the audiologists and dispensers to change the brand that they fit. However, given the large number of unsatisfied hearing-aid customers still out there, whose multi-thousand-dollar investments are sitting in the dresser drawer, along with the many, many additional potential customers who haven’t yet decided to get hearing aids, there is plenty of room for a new market entrant with a compelling value proposition. VitaSound’s CEO, Gora Ganguli, has long and rich experience in the the technology and hearing-aid industries, having previously served in senior executive positions at IBM and Gennum Corp.’s DSP business serving the hearing-aid industry. And VitaSound has impeccable technology credentials with a Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Philippe Pango, who did much of the original Neuro-Compensator research and helped productize it for the VitaSound hearing aids.
The proof will be in the pudding as users sample the new hearing aids and report their experiences. Stay tuned, because I intend to make a pilgrimage to VitaSound’s Hamilton, Ontario headquarters for a live demonstration of the technology if I can arrange it. That way I’ll be able to write up at least one user’s very personal experience with a technology that has tremendous potential to shake up the global hearing-aid business.
emily giles says
What is the costs of the neuro hearing aids? Can you buy a Bluetooth streamer to air with it?
Evelyn Loomis says
I have had nothing but trouble with this hearing aide. I need to have it reprogramed starting from the beginning
Doug Scott says
Is user programming software available with your hearing aids?
Melissa Dice says
This new software sounds wonderful. I work for Walmart and my current aid amplifies all the noises within the store, making it very difficult to understand normal conversation.