Approximately 28.8 million U.S. adults could benefit from hearing aids. Each hearing aid style and brand offers something unique. One helpful feature you can find in many modern devices is directional microphones. Before diving into how directional hearing aids work, let’s examine the standard microphones all hearing aids have: omnidirectional.
What Are Omnidirectional Microphones?
Omnidirectional microphones pull sound equally from all directions so that they will amplify sounds in front of, behind and to either side of you at the same volume.
The primary issue with omnidirectional microphones is that they perform best in quiet environments with minimal competing noise. When you’re in a noisy environment like a busy dinner at Esther’s Kitchen or a crowded work party, they amplify every sound at the same time, making it harder to pick out the important ones.
How Are Directional Microphones Different?
Without hearing loss, your brain can identify the direction a sound is coming from by measuring the slight difference in time it takes for the noise to hit each ear. Unfortunately, hearing loss compromises this system. By dampening the volume of one or both ears, often to different degrees, you lose the ability to pinpoint the source of a specific noise. That’s why it’s so difficult to communicate in busy environments. Directional microphones mimic this sense.
Directional microphones have two or more microphones at specific spots on the hearing aid. They use their location to identify and raise the volume on the sounds coming from the front, while filtering out noise from behind or to the sides—just like your ears do without hearing loss.
Directional microphones are especially helpful in busy environments. By facing the person you’re talking to, your hearing aids will know which voice to amplify, cutting down on unnecessary chatter to reduce distractions. Many newer models feature both omnidirectional and directional microphones, allowing you to choose when to use each.
How Do I Enable Directional Microphones?
If your hearing aids have directional microphones, you can enable them through the companion app whenever you enter a busy environment. To learn more about the advanced features your hearing aids offer, contact Nevada Ear + Sinus Institute today.
Call Nevada Ear + Sinus Institute at (702) 735-7668 for more information or to schedule an appointment.