Could new software improve clarity of hearing for people who use hearing aids and cochlear implants?

There are around 8,945,000 people in the UK who have hearing problems, ranging from mild to profound. And there are an estimated four million people who it’s thought might hear better with a hearing aid.

If you already have a hearing aid you’ll know about their benefits – and potential shortfalls. In a quiet room hearing aids can make the difference between being able to understand what friends and family are saying, or being left out of the conversation and isolated. However in a busy, noisy environment, the background noise can make it difficult to single out voices from the melee of sounds around you.

A whisper of help may be on the horizon. Professor Miriam Furst-Yust of Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering has created a new software application 'Clearcall'. Designed to be used with hearing aids and cochlear implants, the software can improve the user’s ability to recognise speech by as much as 50 percent.

"Hearing-impaired people have a real problem understanding speech," explains Professor Furst-Yust. "Their devices may be useful in a quiet room, but once the background noise levels ramp up, the devices become less useful. Our algorithm helps filter out irrelevant noise so they can better understand the voices of their friends and family."

If the new software lives up to expectations it could make a considerable difference to hearing aid users. 'Clearcall' isn’t on the market yet, so it's a question of waiting for user feedback. Meanwhile, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) is reserving judgement.

"RNID welcomes any attempt to overcome one of the most challenging obstacles for people who are deaf or hard of hearing but, unfortunately there is no one solution to resolve all communication challenges for individuals with hearing loss at this time," comments Guido Gybels, RNID’s Director of Technology.

"The way in which individuals deal with speech and language differs considerably, depending on the type of hearing loss they have and whether or not they learned spoken language before developing deafness. Noise-cancelling technologies, like this one, that filter out background noise and algorithms to improve speech intelligibility are not new and are indeed already in use in a lot of hearing instruments as well as other equipment."

Hearing aids and cochlear implants act as tiny amplifiers so the deaf and hard-of-hearing can make sense of voices and music. Unfortunately, these devices also amplify background sound, so they're less effective in a noisy environment like a busy workplace or café. If you already have a hearing aid you’ll know about their benefits – and potential shortfalls. In a quiet room hearing aids can make the difference between being able to understand what friends and family are saying, or being left out of the conversation and isolated. However in a busy, noisy environment, the background noise can make it difficult to single out voices from the melee of sounds around you.