<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br><br><div dir="ltr">Marsha drenth <div>email: marsha.drenth@gmail.com <div>Sent with my IPhone </div><div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Please note that this email communication has been sent using my iPhone. As such, I may have used dictation and had made attempts to mitigate errors. Please do not be hesitant to ask for clarification as necessary.</span> </div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> Marsha Drenth <mdrenth@asb.org><br><b>Date:</b> March 18, 2021 at 9:52:17 AM EDT<br><b>To:</b> joe.drenth@gmail.com<br><b>Cc:</b> marsha.drenth@gmail.com<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>AI hearing aids optimize sound in real time | ZDNet</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Subject:</b> [tech-vi Announce List] AI hearing aids optimize sound in real time | ZDNet<o:p></o:p></p>
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<a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-hearing-aid-optimizes-sound-in-real-time/">https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-hearing-aid-optimizes-sound-in-real-time/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:25.5pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">AI hearing aids optimize sound in real time<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size:19.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif;font-weight:normal">The hearing aid hardware wars have become a software battleground.<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif"><a href="https://www.zdnet.com/meet-the-team/us/me51/"><span style="color:#416ED2">Greg Nichols</span></a>March 17, 2021 -- 11:00 GMT (04:00
PDT)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif"><img border="0" width="1200" height="675" style="width:12.5in;height:7.0347in" id="_x0000_i1027" src="https://www.zdnet.com/a/hub/i/r/2021/03/15/521621f4-61a1-4479-9daa-cc786773b096/resize/1200xauto/d48de9a041ec21bb1d6fdecdcb7bb7be/whisper.jpg" data-unique-identifier=""></span><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">A software update is coming to an ear near you.
<a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwhisper.ai&c=E,1,YCNuG-tcAXYnuzWvLYqmnna_wWukHvYr7suc63O8V7Jhv0GZj3EdenCgee9-2FAp2Lon68PM7Fyaho3o-_IZ6v_MEqb912Ynd1TEEsWS96z93Av57qlBG5tf8F68&typo=1" target="_blank">
<span style="color:#416ED2">Whisper</span></a>, which develops AI-enabled hearing aids, just announced that they've rolled out the first software upgrade to their Whisper Hearing System, AI-powered hearing aids that improve over time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">If you don't need assistive devices for hearing you'd be forgiven for not knowing that the entire category has received a massive tech upgrade
in the last few years. Companies like <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.oticon.com%2fsolutions%2fopn&c=E,1,HhlBNsGUmIUZATSBVxwogYPAxNpTpIKK94Ee5h7ig6COyAOlC9Vf1l68Um7_Gf_j6FNYdBi9XuMvAx6tc-9pnovLyXMcSPcKAIl2fcMBahNEXrgSRQ,,&typo=1" target="_blank"><span style="color:#416ED2">Oticon
Opn</span></a> have developed hearing devices that <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/hearing-aids-now-theyre-internet-ai-and-health-devices-starkey-oticon-harman-bose/" target="_blank">
<span style="color:#416ED2">link up to smart home</span></a> and can be set to automatically start the coffee maker and turn on lights when put in each morning. Brands like <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.starkey.com%2f&c=E,1,hQMD28lz31X-UqypX2MJMRYC_rUDWie8sFXi_pG-jZrYWCMyilx4InCixzx5S3AJXARcvRi68rfDt3GkmF2C9zg42JTTWYde5yvrvWprNA,,&typo=1" target="_blank"><span style="color:#416ED2">Starkey</span></a> offer
the ability to stream audio from an iPhone directly to the company's hearing aids.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">But intelligence and augmentation is the new frontier. As augmented reality crawls out of its hype hole and begins to deliver some interesting
use cases, augmented hearing might be the real market story. That's because there's a real need at stake (with apologies to AR). Hearing well isn't just about getting the sound to the brain, but knowing which sounds should be amplified and which de-emphasized,
a fantastically complex problem. Brands like Samsung's Harman have invested heavily in augmented hearing capable of isolating conversations in noisy environments, and technologies like machine learning and Deep Neural Networks, which simulate the brain's neural
connections to learn without programming, <a href="https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.healthyhearing.com%2freport%2f53168-Hearing-aids-artificial-intelligence-deep-learning-oticon&c=E,1,hxVlNUh0mL9HbuZyqhROm1QP4svG_OKzcKyejKn4ROjAN4dqUDHkBgK1TkfjFJKU2FhBHIbmjbtOVrRVRiTdHZyf2z4rQTodJitTuAdATRRBGIa_zCSXoaFYOwDo&typo=1" target="_blank">
<span style="color:#416ED2">are being applied to hearing assistance technologies</span></a> to help cut through the dynamic, cluttered noise of natural environments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">Like Oticon Opn, Whisper is going all in on AI. The company launched in 2017 with a team of artificial intelligence, hearing care, hardware, and
software experts coming together to solve the challenge of providing better hearing. The company's flagship device debuted in fall 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">The new updates include improvements include better performance in speech and sound separation, audio optimization, noise reduction, and quality
processing, as well as improvements to the compression system used by audiologists to tailor the device for patients. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">"This upgrade is a major milestone for hearing health," says Andrew Song, Co-Founder and President of Whisper. "We are excited to deliver these
improvements to Whisper users and help change people's hearing experience. This upgrade would not have been possible without combining the latest work from our artificial intelligence team with valuable feedback from hearing care professionals."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:18.0pt;max-width:100%"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"-apple-system-font",serif">According to the company, the improvements come as a result of Whisper's processing tens of thousands of hours of audio information collected
since launch in October 2020. Notably, the upgrades are free to Whisper customer, who pay on a monthly plan for the device and ongoing care form a local hearing care professional. It's a model familiar in the mobile and personal computing worlds, and its migration
to the world of hearing assistance signals a new chapter of competition and software-driven technology development in hearing aids.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> David Goldfield <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Assistive Technology Specialist<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Feel free to visit my Web site<o:p></o:p></p>
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