Hearing aids are an extremely useful tool in modern audiology. People with hearing disabilities use them to improve their hearing and avoid issues in their day-to-day lives. But how can such a small device make such a big impact? This video explains the basics of how a hearing aid works.
Hearing aids generally have two microphones that pick up the sounds in the environment. The sound travels through an analog-digital converter, or ADC, which transforms the analog sound into a digital signal. The digital signal is then processed by a computer chip. Pretty high-tech!
The computer chips are calibrated to the specific hearing of the individual wearer. Some people can hear low frequencies excellently, but are nearly deaf to higher frequencies. And some people are the exact opposite, and many more are somewhere in between. Hearing aids need to be high-tech to help all of these people with different hearing deficiencies.
If you’re thinking that this process must take awhile, think again! The entire process only takes a few milliseconds to complete. The wearer will not have any lag time between the sounds they are surrounded by and the sounds sent to their ear by the hearing aid.
For more information, check out the video above.