Oticon announced the launch of Oticon Own, a new family of custom hearing aids with BrainHearing technology “designed to provide a fully customized fit for ultimate comfort.” Oticon Own is “the world’s first custom hearing aid with an on-board Deep Neural Network** that works more like the brain because it learned through experience,” according to the company. The new custom hearing aids represent “a significant leap in technology generations, delivering Oticon’s most advanced performance in discreet custom hearing aids with the superior power, speed and features of the groundbreaking Polaris platform.” Hearing care professionals can now offer users “a highly discreet product, with best-in-class audiology and technology as well as an IIC style that is invisible to 9 out of 10 users.”
“Oticon Own reinforces our commitment to offer a full portfolio of hearing solutions powered by the Polaris platform,” said Virginia Ramachandran, AuD, PhD, head of audiology for Oticon, Inc. “By introducing BrainHearing technology into our smallest hearing devices, we enable hearing care professionals to offer more patients a reliable, comfortable, custom-made solution that gives them more freedom to enjoy an active lifestyle.”
Oticon Own In-The-Ear (ITE) hearing aids are customized to each individual user, offering “ultimate comfort and confidence to enjoy an active lifestyle.” The new custom family is built to be discreet. Using miniaturization techniques, Oticon has accomplished its smallest in-the-ear design to date, according to the announcement. The smaller design helps “enable professionals to fit more ears so that more users can choose an ITE style.”
In addition, the fitting range of Oticon’s new IIC and CIC hearing aids can now be fitted to level 90, while the Oticon Own ITC, ITE HS, and ITE FS can be fitted to level 100.
Oticon Own’s design includes the “advanced audiological performance of Oticon’s proven BrainHearing technology.” According to Oticon, it is the first custom hearing aid with an on-board Deep Neural Network (DNN). Trained with 12 million real-life sound scenes, the DNN in Oticon Own recognizes “a wealth of sounds, their details, and how they should ideally be heard in a natural way.”
Hearing care professionals can now offer “custom users access to all relevant sounds, supporting the brain’s natural ability to make sense of sound.” Oticon Own includes three dynamic features***: MoreSound Amplifier, balancing amplification, MoreSound Optimizer, eliminating feedback, and MoreSound Intelligence. Oticon has proven that “Oticon Own significantly reduces listening effort for users.” Using pupillometry to measure listening effort, with MoreSound Intelligence on, the pupil size of Oticon Own users was reduced by 30%†. Oticon Own also includes Oticon’s Tinnitus SoundSupport which helps provide relief sounds for tinnitus sufferers.
Many Oticon Own styles are Made for iPhone and compatible Android devices††, offering direct, high-quality streaming, so that users can enjoy their favorite music as well as take calls through their hearing aids. Select iPhone and iPad users can enjoy hands-free communication thanks to Apple support for bi-directional hearing aids****. 2.4 GHz Bluetooth Low Energy Technology is introduced from the Oticon Own ITC style upwards, making the Oticon Own ITC “the smallest, fully featured ITE hearing aid in the Oticon portfolio.”
Oticon Own is available in five styles, with five price points and five colors, delivering a complete custom product family from Oticon for hearing care professionals to offer.
“We are proud to make custom hearing aids available to so many more users, and while continuing to deliver the life-changing hearing experience Oticon hearing solutions provide,” Ramachandran added.
To learn more about Oticon Own and Oticon’s entire portfolio visit: Oticon.com.
*Rumley et al. (2022). Oticon Own evidence. Oticon whitepaper
**DNN is only available in Oticon Own 1, 2, and 3
*** Effect and availability of features vary with hearing aid style and performance level.
****Hands-free communication is available with iPhone 11 or later running iOS 15.2 or later and iPad running iPadOS® 15.2 or later.
†Reduction in listening effort is measured with peak pupil dilation. Rumley et al. (2022). Oticon Own evidence. Oticon whitepaper
††Only available in styles with 2.4 GHz. Android devices need to support ASHA to allow direct connectivity to Oticon More. iPhone and iPad devices need to support two-way hands-free communication. Please visit Oticon.com/support/compatibility for more information and to see which devices are compatible.
Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc, registered in the US and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc, Android, Google Play, and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
Source: Oticon
Image: Oticon
