Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The "dare to ask Teana | Ten questions about hearing Health in the elderly" released by Nanjing University and Tencent Research Institute points out that about 1x3 people over 65 years old in China have more than moderate hearing loss, while people over 75 years old have increased to about 1max 2. However, the utilization rate of hearing aids in China is only 5% to 10%, compared with 30% in developed countries in Europe and the United States.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, on the one hand, the elderly and their children do not pay enough attention to the problem of "hearing impairment", and even in the subconscious of many people, the problem of "inaudibility" of the elderly is very normal; another reason for the lack of popularity of hearing aids is that professional hearing aid equipment is too expensive, as well as problems such as trouble in use and poor appearance.

Adhering to the vision of "building a better world with artificial intelligence", iFLYTEK officially launched iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid products last year, marking the first time iFLYTEK has entered a series of medical fields. At the beginning of this year, iFLYTEK officially iterated over iFLYTEK smart hearing aid products, this evaluation, is iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid premium version (HB-03), priced at 2199 yuan.

In addition, iFLYTEK also provides enjoyable and premium versions of iFLYTEK smart hearing aids. The main difference between the three versions is the "full sound gain".

The specific configuration differences are shown in the following figure:

Take the iFLYTEK Smart hearing Aid premium version of this experience as an example, which supports the highest 40dB gain for people with moderate and severe hearing loss, and also supports self-developed 16-channel WDRC technology, which can be adjusted independently.

Next, CTOnews.com will have an "ear-pleasing" experience around this product. If you have a certain demand for this kind of product, you might as well take a look at the review.

Part one: design as a hearing aid product, the appearance of iFLYTEK smart hearing aid is no different from traditional TWS headphones, familiar with cobblestone shape, flip design, iFLYTEK logo is located on the front of the body, below is a long bar of device buttons.

The bottom of iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid body is type-C charging port, and the silver back hinge highlights the scientific and technological attributes of the product at all times.

There are four obvious power and status lights inside the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid, which is convenient to know the power status of the device for the first time.

IFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid design is no different from the traditional in-ear headphones, silicone earplugs use the same design as sports headphones, so the design is more consistent with the ear groove structure, wear more secure, and can effectively prevent the entry of external sound.

The headphone handle is designed with physical buttons, the small "I" button at the top is used to switch the status of the device, answer the phone, etc., and the long volume button at the bottom is used for volume adjustment.

Compared with virtual buttons, the physical pressing feeling caused by physical buttons is obviously more suitable for the elderly who are not sensitive to the operation of digital products.

Compared with the traditional TWS charging box, the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid is slightly thicker, with a measured weight of about 60g. The author guesses that this is because there is a larger battery inside. After all, the use time of the intelligent hearing aid is much longer than that of the traditional TWS headphones.

There are no official figures on battery capacity, but in terms of battery life, headphones can be used for 10 hours when the headphones are fully charged, and the charging box provides a 28-hour battery life, which is enough for consumers.

In the design of the headset box, the author would rather mention two areas that can be optimized:

On the one hand, a wedge-shaped bevel design is adopted at the opening of the headphone box, which makes it a little difficult for one hand to open the lid, so you have to find a suitable angle. of course, you can choose to open and close with both hands (for the elderly, the cost of opening and closing with one hand is still a little higher)

On the other hand, it can be considered to add a rope port on the fuselage, which can further avoid the problem of loss when the elderly use it.

IFLYTEK intelligent hearing aids provide a total of three pairs of earplugs, the single ear weight of the headphones is about 5g, in the wearing experience, the in-ear design is more comfortable, the author has been wearing it for more than 2 hours, and there is no abnormal sensation and itching in the ears, such as walking, brisk walking, shaking the head and other activities of varying degrees, the headphones are still firmly "locked" in the ear, without the feeling of loosening.

In addition, the earplugs provided by headphones basically have no peculiar smell of rubber. Officials say the earplugs add silver ion antibacterial agent and have passed the safety certification of Guangdong Microbiological Analysis and testing Center, with an antibacterial rate as high as 99.9%.

The second part: for the first time, most of the people who are suitable for the intelligent hearing aid are the middle-aged and elderly groups, so how to make users understand and use this product quickly and simply is very important.

What is very valuable is that iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aids specially produce a set of video guides for operation, which can be seen everywhere in the form of a QR code on the outer packaging of the product, as well as on the instructions inside the product, and on separate product cards.

The video guide includes hardware use, device binding, matching, subtitle hearing aid, scene recognition, and sound pick-up direction, covering all the basic operations and functions of this product.

Therefore, for the elderly who are not familiar with the operation, if the children are not around, scan the code through the mobile phone, you can also quickly get to know this product.

IFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid also provides "iFLYTEK hearing Health" App, which is used for mobile phone binding products. For the first time, it will go into "self-matching" and pass dozens of pure tone tests to detect hearing damage.

After getting the audiogram, the system will customize the scheme suitable for different hearing loss patients, compensate the left and right ears respectively, and save the trouble of waiting time and store adjustment.

In the "iFLYTEK hearing Health" App, function settings such as subtitle aid (voice transliteration), scene switching and pick-up direction are provided.

Part III: upper ear experience according to the data of the World Health Organization, hearing loss is generally divided into four grades: mild, moderate, severe and extremely severe. When hearing comes to mild (average hearing 26-40), you can try to wear hearing aids. For the elderly with severe hearing loss, what is needed is a hearing aid with higher output power.

The iFLYTEK Smart hearing Aid premium version obtained by CTOnews.com supports 40dB gain, which is more suitable for people with moderate and severe hearing loss.

IFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid premium version also supports digital 16-channel. Through the self-developed 16-channel WDRC technology, we can tailor the compensation scheme for hearing loss patients in each frequency band, so as to achieve more accurate speech comprehension and better listening comfort.

In addition, iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid also supports self-developed AiScene scene recognition system, real-time tracking of the user's environment, equalization channel noise reduction adjustment, and finally get a perfect environmental noise suppression scheme, including support for 6561 noise reduction modes to automatically switch.

In the sound pickup, the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid also uses the dual-wheat beamforming algorithm to accurately focus on the front voice.

In the experience part, we simply tested the decibel gain performance of iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid through head recording equipment.

First of all, the face-to-face communication is simulated, such as a dinner scene, when the sound source is located on the right slope of the recording device, and the distance is about 50CM. The volume gain of iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid is set to default, and the picking direction is omni-directional pickup by default.

Through the ripple below, we can see that after the device wears iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid, the fluctuation of the same sound source is more obvious. Obviously, iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid amplifies the sound effect.

The simulation scene is followed by a slightly faraway scene, such as meeting and greeting, or outdoor conversation, when the sound source is located directly opposite the recording equipment, the distance is about 2m.

The conversation sound (that is, the sound source) was slightly louder in the test, and the ripple patterns before and after wearing were also recorded.

As shown in the following figure, in this scene, there are significant changes in both frequency and amplitude of the sound waveform after wearing iFLYTEK smart hearing aids, which means that the pitch and loudness are significantly improved after wearing.

Simulation scenario 2 through a simple test can show that the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid's 40dB gain effect is indeed obvious.

In addition, there are also some discoveries during the experience, such as choosing the most suitable earplugs and ensuring the tightness when wearing them, otherwise there will be "howling". There is also a special description card in the packaging of this product.

On the other hand, the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid uses the AiClear howling suppression algorithm, which can track the howling signal all the time, combine the shock absorber tube to eliminate the moving iron vibration, and the structure and algorithm are coupled to suppress the howling. As long as you choose the right earplugs, the "howling" problem will not appear in the wearing, occasionally there will be a "howling" problem when taking the headphones, but it does not affect the use.

Secondly, iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aids can deal with the ambient noise quite well, such as face-to-face communication in complex scenes, the conversation can "jump" out of the noisy ambient sound.

IFLYTEK smart hearing aids also retain some high-frequency sounds, such as clapping your hands, tapping on the keyboard, or walking in high heels.

It should be emphasized that the average hearing threshold of the author's left and right ears is about 11-12, which belongs to normal listening. The experience conclusion of the above two points is also based on the author's normal listening.

As for the delay, the author did not find it during the experience. Officials say that the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid has reached a response of 3 milliseconds. In my experience, it is basically the opposite side that "opens the mouth" and the sound immediately "enters the ear".

IFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid also has a very intimate function in the experience, that is, it supports "subtitle hearing aid". The strength of iFLYTEK's speech recognition technology is obvious to all, so there is also the blessing of this technology on iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aids.

In some extreme situations, people with hearing impairment can also use "subtitle aids" to turn their voice into mobile subtitles. The author also made a simple test, and the results show that the recognition rate of "subtitle hearing aid" is no different from that of other speech recognition products of iFLYTEK, and the accuracy is quite high.

It is worth mentioning that the technology also supports Henan and Cantonese dialects as well as Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing and Sichuan dialects, which are obviously more friendly to the elderly.

Part IV: audio experience iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid is also a TWS headset, such as equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, support for answering and making phone calls. In terms of sound quality, it uses professional dynamic iron, which has more high-frequency resolution than 10000Hz.

Although this is essentially a "hearing aid" device, the iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid in the sound quality performance, really surprised the author, especially in the restoration of the human voice.

During the test, the author randomly ordered a popular song "aphasia". When the song began with the phrase "We are always unrepentant in love", the clean and pure girls really amazed the author. Then there is teacher Cai Qin's "Ferry". The voice part is also amazing. Teacher Cai Qin's honest and beautiful voice has been well restored in iFLYTEK smart hearing aids.

However, the audio advantage of iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid is still concentrated in the human voice part, in the low-frequency performance is regular, such as the early drum, the low-frequency sense is slightly insufficient, and there is no sense of extension.

For example, some instrumental pieces of slightly complex rock music, such as DiLeica's "Life Park", guitar bass accompaniment, it sounds a bit "messy", but after the lead singer opens his mouth, it will draw your attention back to the vocal part.

Therefore, iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aids are more suitable for some classic old songs and pop songs that pay attention to the human voice, which is very suitable for the music needs of the middle-aged and elderly.

It is worth mentioning that when the headset plays music, it is actually in a "noise reduction state" and cannot be "assisted", but as long as the music is paused, the "hearing aid" mode is turned on immediately. Would it be better to provide an option to listen to music and "help" at the same time?

In the end: the second national sample survey of disabled people shows that the number of people with hearing impairment in China has reached nearly 30 million, and this figure will further increase with the aging of the population.

In fact, the difficulties encountered by people with hearing impairment in their lives are far more than we can imagine. They are "lonely patients" who are lost in this world. In the silent corner, they deserve more attention from everyone.

In the face of the high price of traditional hearing aid devices on the market, the release of iFLYTEK smart hearing aids gives people with hearing impaired a choice of simpler operation and more people-friendly prices. To a certain extent, it also solves the problems that the elderly "cannot use" and "cannot afford to use" hearing aids.

It is the responsibility and unshirkable obligation of iFLYTEK, as a leading enterprise of artificial intelligence, to let the hearing impaired have the courage to "discover the beauty of the world". The author also expects that under the promotion of iFLYTEK, more and more enterprises will participate in this field, so that everyone can enjoy the beauty of sound equally.

Going back to the product itself, iFLYTEK intelligent hearing aid is indeed a very competitive product in the field of hearing aids, and the same design language as TWS headphones, lower barriers to purchase, easy-to-use interaction, strong AI capabilities, good hardware strength, and even points full of humanistic care, such as video tutorials, will become the reasons for consumers to choose it.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.