Oticon Hearing Aids

How is it possible to hear better in noise than someone with perfect hearing? The answer is BrainHearing, an exciting new technology that opens the door to a whole new way of creating hearing aids. This operating system reduces listening effort, increases speech understanding, and allows you to relax and enjoy social environments while easily focusing on the conversations happening around you. Tests comparing OPN wearers with normal listeners show that OPN wearers have 20% greater memory for things they hear, while reducing listening effort by 20%. Since your ears aren’t working so hard just to hear, OPN provides 30% better speech understanding to hearing aid wearers!

OPN accomplishes these amazing results on the Velox Platform, created by Oticon to switch from directionality-focused technology to a more brain-centered approach. It’s aimed at helping the brain hear, rather than just amplifying sounds for the ear. OPN is the first hearing aid that gives the brain full control. The hearing aid doesn’t decide which sounds to amplify or block, but leaves that decision up to the brain. Directionality technology works well in quiet listening environments, when the focal point is obvious. In complex environments though, directionality doesn’t always work so well, with focus constantly changing as you try to pay attention to the music, your friend beside you, or someone a few tables away. Spatial orientation is difficult, and the changing focal points can be disorienting. Focus becomes narrow, and all sounds lose their rich quality.

OPN changes all of that. With its 64-band frequency resolution platform, sounds are analyzed and amplified instantly. The OpenSound Navigator Environmental Analyzer scans the environment and soundscape more than 100 times every second! Along with the Spatial Sound LX that provides accurate spatial cues, sounds are balanced and amplified, allowing you to hear all the sounds around you even in complex settings. It’s then up to your brain to choose what to focus on. It naturally focuses on what you want to hear, and the hearing device will simply support this decision, rather than forcing a focal point.

This means you can focus on speech without losing awareness of the other sounds around you, or having tunnel hearing. If someone starts speaking beside you, you are instantly aware of it and can switch focus, rather than being locked into focusing on the stage in front of you. OPN is designed to support the brain by balancing sounds, reducing listening effort, and providing natural hearing like never before. In natural hearing the ear and brain work together, and OPN works to preserve this balance.

Another first for OPN is its internet connectivity. This is never before seen technology in a hearing device, and Oticon is excited to unveil it in OPN. Running with TwinLink, the hearing device wirelessly connects to your phone, TV, and radio. That’s not all though. It also connects to your vehicle audio system, the doorbell, electricity and thermostat controllers, the baby monitor, and even kitchen appliances. This goes far beyond easy listening when talking on the phone. You can get email notifications right to your hearing aids, receive calendar reminders, or get a notification if the doorbell rings or the home alarm system goes off. This works on an If This Than That (IFTTT) network, allowing you to live without stress, knowing you won’t miss the baby monitor, the mailman, or the stove alarm.

With so many programs, there are a lot of settings to keep track of. YouMatic LX makes your life easy by remembering personal preferences so you don’t need to waste time fiddling to find the right setting every time the listening environment changes. OPN also features binaural hearing using a near-field magnetic communication system, working with BrainHearing to allow information to pass quickly between the ears and give better sound quality and spatial cues.