Helping the brain make sense of sound

Sound is one thing, making sense is everything. We think brain first. This is a whole new mindset for hearing care.

Ear hearing

BrainHearing™

The conventional industry mindset is to compensate for damage in the ear. We call this ear hearing.

By thinking brain first, we aim to help the brain make sense of the sound it receives from the ears.

It all starts with the brain Our audiological focus is to support the way the brain makes sense of sound – a process we must understand in order to meet the many unique demands of each individual. To do this we focus first on what the brain needs in order to make sense of the sound it receives from the ears. In other words, rather than focusing on sound or the ears, we think brain first.

Sound

Sound

Sound

Sound

The brain constantly uses both ears to orient itself and know what’s happening in the environment

Orient

The brain’s process of making sense of sound

The brain depends on its ability to recognise a sound in order to make sense of it

Recognise

Separate

Focus The brain needs to perform four key functions in order to be able to make sense of sound. Because the brain performs these functions simultaneously, we have to understand all of them and support them continuously.

The brain has to know where to focus in noisy sound environments

The brain separates relevant sounds from competing noise

Let both ears work together constantly

Keep the natural sound level differences occurring at each ear

Optimise all technologies so that they perform according to the individual’s own unique needs

Preserve the important details of sounds

Orient

To provide the brain with the input it needs to make sense of sound, BrainHearing™ technology must fulfill a number of demands Each of the following demands must be fulfilled in order to support the brain’s entire process of making sense of sound.

Sound

Recognise

Sound

Separate

Focus

Match an individual’s own experience of sound

Deliver varying degrees of directionality, only resorting to full directionality when absolutely necessary

Prioritise speech information over other sounds

Maintain as much of the surrounding environment as possible

Orient

BrainHearing™ technology calls for a platform like no other

Sound

INIUM

Recognise

Separate

WIRELESS

WIRELESS

Focus Our latest generation quad-core signal processing platform, Inium, facilitates our most stable and power-efficient binaural audiology ever. Making it possible for two hearing instruments to communicate continuously and seamlessly, Inium is the first platform that truly supports the brain’s entire process of making sense of sound.

INIUM

Sound

YOUMATIC

BrainHearing™ technology combines four audiological features that work together continuously

Orient

Sound

Recognise

Inium creates the platform for Spatial Sound, Speech Guard, Free Focus and YouMatic to work in combination and enable the individual to • organise sounds and orient itself within its surroundings • hear better in challenging environments • understand speech over other noises, engage in conversation and switch focus when necessary • enjoy an enhanced, enriched listening experience according to his or her own sound preferences and tastes.

SPATIAL SOUND

Sound

Separate

Focus

FREE FOCUS

SPEECH GUARD

SPATIAL SOUND

Letting both ears work together with the brain – constantly and in real time Thanks to true binaural processing, Spatial Sound makes it possible for the individual to gain an accurate understanding of the surroundings and know where sounds are coming from. Maintaining more natural sound levels is vital for the brain in orienting itself and supports its ability to separate sounds.

SPEECH GUARD

Preserving the natural characteristics of speech By preserving as many of the unique characteristics of a sound as possible, Speech Guard works alongside Spatial Sound to support the brain in separating voices and sounds from each other. By prioritising voices over other sounds, Speech Guard also helps the brain to know where to focus its attention – and switch that focus from one person speaking to another. In preserving many of the important details of sounds, Speech Guard supports the brain’s ability to recognise.

FREE FOCUS

The freedom to focus Free Focus steps in to complement Spatial Sound and Speech Guard by supporting the brain’s ability to focus while enabling the brain to continue to orient itself and separate sounds. The varying degrees of directionality offered by Free Focus mean the individual gets valuable assistance in focusing on a voice in noise, while maintaining its awareness of its surroundings. In highly challenging environments, Free Focus provides the individual with full directionality.

YOUMATIC

Rewriting the rules of personalisation YouMatic is designed to optimise the performance of BrainHearing technologies according to the individual’s own unique hearing needs and personal sound taste. By matching the individual’s own experience of sound, YouMatic helps to make sounds more recognisable, directly supporting the brain during this part of the process. And by intelligently controlling and managing the coordination of Spatial sound, Speech Guard and Free Focus, YouMatic enhances and enriches the overall BrainHearing experience.

A recent survey proves the benefits of BrainHearing™ technology beyond doubt Powered by the Inium chip platform, Oticon Alta delivers 96% satisfaction for new and experienced hearing instrument users. This is a significant increase on the industry benchmark.

Ear hearing

BrainHearing™

user satisfaction

user satisfaction

79%

96%

In the MarkeTrak VIII study carried out in 2010, Kochkin, S. et al measured average hearing instrument user satisfaction at 79%

In the Oticon Alta International Satisfaction Study, 2013, overall satisfaction for both new and experienced hearing instrument users was rated at 96%

People First is our promise to empower people to communicate freely, interact naturally and

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