Wander the halls of any nursing home, and you’re almost certain to find residents struggling to make out sounds, turning off ineffective hearing aids or leaving them on the nightstand.
But a group of scientists hopes to cut through the noise and make hearing aids more effective by giving them the power to read minds.
A team of researchers from Columbia University and Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine unveiled their experimental design in Science Advances earlier this week.
The next-generation hearing aid uses artificial intelligence to separate the sounds of various speakers, interprets brain activity to determine which person the wearer actually wants to hear and then turns up that voice — and only that voice.
For now, the device interacts with surgically implanted electrodes on the brain’s surface, but one day it might use electrodes placed on the scalp or behind the ear to connect to deep neural networks. Remote devices such as mobile phones also could help process the computations needed to power the solution.
That should be a welcome buzz for those with hearing loss.
“Such a device can help hearing-impaired listeners more easily communicate in crowded environments and reduce the listening effort for normal-hearing subjects, therefore reducing listening fatigue,” the team predicted.
