Digital Hearing Aids Technology

Digital on the other hand generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive. Positive is expressed or represented by the number 1 and non-positive by the number 0. Thus, data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0's and 1's. Each of these state digits is referred to as a bit.

Digital processing means faster response times and more accurate sound filtering Digital processing converted the sound itself from analog to digital, processed it in digital form and converted it back into analog for the eardrum.

A digital hearing aid is a hearing aid device that receives sound and digitizes it (breaks sound waves up into very small, discrete units) prior to amplification.

A digital hearing aid uses a microphone, but a microprocessor performs most of the device's functions digitally. Because the signal is represented as a series of numbers, it can be quickly and accurately altered.

Advantages

• # Convert sound to digital signals.
• # Programmable and Non Programmable both types are available.
• # A digital hearing aid can be programmed to adjust itself to the current environment millions of times each second.
• # Can distinguish between noise and speech. Can suppress background noise so a person can hear speech better.
• # The most sophisticated digital hearing aids have built in intelligence that allows them to discern between soft, but desirable sounds, and louder, but unwanted noise.

Disadvantages

• # More Expencive!