ReSound has launched Sensia, a new range of AI-powered hearing aids designed to tackle a common problem in noisy environments: what happens when your hearing aids focus on the wrong voice?
Rather than simply reducing background noise, ReSound says Sensia is designed to identify which sounds are most important and automatically adjust its processing to help you stay focused on the person you want to hear.
Sensia combines three technologies that work together automatically:
In simple terms, the aim is to make the hearing aids respond not just to what is loudest, but to what is most useful to listen to.
For example, imagine sitting in a busy restaurant with a friend directly in front of you. If a louder conversation starts nearby, Sensia is designed to help maintain focus on the person you’re facing rather than automatically switching attention to the louder voice.
ReSound reports encouraging early results.
In one laboratory study, Sensia’s acoustic system achieved 100% accuracy across three different sound categories and was reported to be 88% more accurate at activating appropriate directionality and gain-related features than the closest-performing competitor.
ReSound also tested Sensia with experienced hearing aid users. In one blinded study, 80% of participants experienced better audibility of a target speaker with Sensia when a louder distractor was present.
In another study, when the person in front was quieter than competing voices, the target speaker remained the most audible in 31% of conditions with Intelligent Focus, compared with 4% with a competing premium hearing aid.
These results are interesting, particularly because they focus on whether the hearing aids actually respond appropriately rather than simply identifying the listening environment.
It’s important to put these results into context. The research and figures have been supplied by ReSound, competitor products were anonymised, and some studies were laboratory-based rather than conducted in everyday listening environments.
The results are therefore promising, but they don’t yet prove that Sensia will outperform every other hearing aid in every real-world situation.
Independent testing and longer-term patient experience will be important.
A wide range of hearing aid styles
ReSound is launching Sensia across several styles, including rechargeable and disposable-battery options, RIE, CIC, ITC and custom hearing aids.
ReSound also says its new DNN processing is significantly more power-efficient, allowing rechargeable models to maintain advanced noise reduction while delivering up to 24 hours of battery life.
However, there are still some details to clarify, including exactly which technology levels and hearing aid styles receive the full Intelligent All-Around feature set, as well as connectivity features such as Bluetooth, telecoil and Auracast.
Sensia could be particularly interesting if you:
If your conversations regularly move between people around you, or you require a particular custom style or technology level, it’s worth comparing Sensia carefully with other options.
The most interesting aspect of ReSound Sensia isn’t simply another improvement in AI noise reduction. It’s the way ReSound is attempting to coordinate environmental classification, directionality and denoising around the conversation you’re most likely trying to follow.
The early research is encouraging, but independent real-world testing will be important before declaring Sensia a clear leader.
At Harley Street Hearing, we can help you compare the latest hearing aid technology from ReSound and other leading manufacturers and find the solution that’s best suited to your hearing, lifestyle and listening needs.
Call us now on 020 7486 1053 for a consultation and contact us here.
Matthew Allsop is a Partner at Harley Street Hearing, and Europe’s biggest hearing technology Youtuber for Hearing Tracker, where he shares his honest opinion on all new hearing aid technology. Hearing Tracker is the world’s first truly independent resource for hearing aid customers. You can view his full video on this topic here.
