CES 2021 – High Tech Hearing Aids (Innovation Awards)
CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honorees
This year’s CES 2021, or Consumer Electronics Show, is recognizing two hearing aids as innovation award honorees – the Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid and the Widex Moment hearing aid. Today, I’m talking about the four cutting edge technologies that make these hearing aids so exceptional. Coming up!
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Hi, I’m Dr. Derek – audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with Pro Fit Hearing.com bringing you the best insight into today’s latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
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CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honorees – Starkey & Widex
Today, I’m talking about how the Starkey Livio Edge AI and Widex Moment hearing aids use four cutting edge technologies to greatly improve the overall user experience. Make sure to read until the end where I’ll discuss a bonus technology feature that makes one of these devices even more unique.
Technology #1 – AI or Artificial Intelligence
Both of these hearing aids use Artificial Intelligence machine learning to listen to your environment and to improve the sound quality.
The Starkey Livio Edge AI gives you access to this AI technology with Edge mode by double tapping on the hearing aid. The Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid can sit behind the ear or be custom molded to fit inside the ear. The Widex Moment hearing aid gives you access to this AI technology using the SoundSense Learn feature. This is available on the Widex Moment Smartphone App. Widex Moment hearing aid AI technology is available in the styles that sit behind the ear.
Technology #2 – Rechargeable batteries
If you’re interested in hearing aids, rechargeable devices are very convenient since you no longer have to remove or replace disposable hearing aid batteries. The Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid offers rechargeable batteries for all of their models. These include custom molded devices that sit inside the ear and those that sit behind the ear. The Widex Moment hearing aid offers this technology as well in its devices that sit behind the ear.
Technology #3 – Smartphone app control
Starkey has the Thrive Hearing Control App. This gives you access to custom sound controls as well as fitness and brain tracking data, fall alerts, hearing aid checks, language translation, voice assistant, remote connection to healthcare providers, and more. Widex has the Widex Moment App. This gives you access to custom sound tuning as well as Artificial Intelligence sound adjustment.
Technology #4 – Bluetooth Streaming
The Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid can stream audio directly from an iPhone and some Android devices. This feature is available in their custom molded hearing aids that sit inside the ear as well as those that sit behind the ear. The Widex Moment hearing aid can stream audio directly from an iPhone to their hearing aids that sit behind the ear. Bluetooth streaming can be very helpful for hearing your best while you’re using the telephone or enjoying media on your smartphone.
Bonus Feature
Ok, so now for those of you who have stayed to the end, I’ll mention my last bonus feature that you’ll find specifically in the Widex Moment hearing aid. The Widex Moment uses their ZeroDelay technology also referred to as Widex PureSound. This is ultrafast sound processing; the delay between incoming sound at the microphone and outgoing processed sound from the hearing aid is less than 0.5 milliseconds.
This incredible speed helps reduce the comb filter effect. This is that hollow metallic type sound that hearing aids experience due to sound wave interference from the sound delays inside the ear canal. This technology allows for superior sound quality especially for people with mild to moderate hearing loss that may use a more open fitting hearing aid.
CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honorees – Starkey vs Widex
AI
So to summarize, the Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid and the Widex Moment hearing aid both offer AI technology to improve the user experience. Currently, the Widex moment hearing aid has AI technology available only in the styles that sit behind the ear. The Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid offers AI technology in the styles that sit behind the ear as well as inside the ear.
Rechargeable
Both of these hearing aids offer rechargeable batteries, however Widex offers this feature only in the styles that sit behind the ear. Starkey offers it in all styles of hearing aids.
App
While both Starkey and Widex offer an App for their hearing aids, the Starkey App provides a wider range of control and functionality than the Widex App.
Streaming
If you’re interested in audio streaming, the Starkey Livio Edge AI hearing aid provides more direct streaming connectivity options than the Widex Moment hearing aid.
Bonus Feature
Also, the ZeroDelay technology referred to as Widex PureSound is an exciting feature offered only in the Widex Moment hearing aid.
Consult with your Audiologist or Dispenser
Now, both of these hearing aids offer outstanding technology that will assist you in hearing your best, however ask your audiologist or hearing aid dispenser which hearing aid model they recommend for your specific needs.
To learn more about the latest hearing aid technology, watch my upcoming Best Hearing Aids of 2021 video series. Make sure to subscribe the Pro Fit Hearing YouTube channel and hit the notification bell so you know when these videos are posted.
If you have any questions about either of these hearing aids, let me know in the comments below.
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-Dr. Derek