Digital hearing aids are the predominant hearing instrument technology. To grasp how they operate to address hearing troubles, it is really helpful to know the way in which hearing operates. The process used by hearing instruments to convert and transmit sound to the inner ear works similarly to your ear itself . Leaning about new hearing aids as well as the organic process of hearing fosters awe for technological developments and helps people with hearing loss in understanding how they may be helped by hearing instruments.
Hearing is the only sense accomplished by means of an fully mechanical process. Sound waves must first be funneled into your pinna, the outer part of our ear that protrudes. Similarly, digital hearing instruments collect sound waves utilizing a microphone. There are ridges inside the pinna that sound waves bounce off of depending upon the direction of the sound. When sound waves are collected they are directed into your outer ear and then travel to your ear canal in which they bounce off of your ear drum, or the tympanic membrane.
The ear drum is located between the ear canal and middle ear. When sound waves hit the ear drum, it moves in reaction to the impact. The waves carried by the ear drum are weak and must be intensified through the ossicles, three bones in your middle ear that work similarly to dominos. The motion of the eardrum creates a chain reaction of actions inside the ossicles and when the last of the bones moves, it forces the inner ear fluid in the cochlea to move. The force is transmitted to your inner ear where it's altered into nerve impulses which are interpreted by the brain. Digital hearing instrument technology transmits sound collected by the microphone into the analog to digital (A/D) converter, where sound is changed into binary code that is read with the core. The A/D converter performs much like the middle ear, converting sound to binary code like sound is changed into nerve impulses inside the ear. The code is then sent to the core to be interpreted just as the brain receives the nerve pulses.
The pressurized inner ear fluid flows over the basilar membrane inside of the cochlea. When the waves arrive at the membrane there is a burst of energy that strikes the organ of corti hair cells that run along the length of your membrane and contains very little hairs. When moved, they deliver electrical impulses to your cochlear nerve and pass the electrical impulses onto the cerebral cortex where the brain deciphers the information. The core of the hearing instrument operates just like the brain and once it receives data will decide how to alter the sound based upon your hearing instruments settings. This info is then despatched to the digital to analog converter and changed again into sound that your receiver will input in to the ear canal.
Hearing aid technology has come a long way from the years of analog hearing aids. Digital hearing aids are available in all sizes and will treat a wide range of hearing loss. The core of a hearing instrument can be set to fit the requirements of individuals, permitting for personalization. New hearing aids are miraculous with the way they are able to mimic the processes of your body producing the treatment of hearing loss far better than before.
Author Resource:
Byron Campisi is a Hearing Aid Specialist and Owner of Byron's Hudson Valley Hearing Aid Centers in Poughkeepsie, NY and Kingston, NY . With over 30 years combined experience, he has the most effective staff of Hearing Device Specialists in the Hudson Valley New York.