Time to Read: 4 minutes.
Over the past 53 years, tech fans and new gadget early adopters have looked forward to The Consumer Electronic Show (CES).
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) an annual trade show featuring new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry.
Some of the technology that had its debut at CES over the years include, video cassette recorders, the Commodore 64, Blu Ray Disc, 3D projectors, and concave televisions.
For hearing aid wearers, there are a couple of interesting innovations that have come out of this year’s show.
Phonak Virto
Inspired by the popularity of ‘wearables’ like Apple Airpods and Galaxy Earbuds, Phonak have released Virto Black, the world’s first custom-made hearing aid that directly streams from both iOS, Android, or virtually any other Bluetooth-enabled audio device.
It boasts up to 16 hearing performance features that work together to help wearers connect with everyone in their life. Meanwhile its microprocessor chip runs five wireless protocols at the same time including Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth LE, Binaural VoiceStream Technology, Airstream Technology and Roger, providing the wireless connectivity that today’s wearers expect.
With Virto Black, hearing aid wearers can answer, end, or reject a phone call with a simple push of a button while keeping their phone in their pocket, purse, or on a nearby table. On-board microphones allow wearers to use their devices as wireless headsets, resulting in truly hands-free conversations.
The Virto is due to be launched in the United States on 19 February. There is no word on when it might be available in Australia.
Better Bluetooth
The next generation of Bluetooth was announced at CES 2020. Bluetooth SIG, the industry group that defines the technology standard, announced Bluetooth LE Audio (standing for low energy) at the tradeshow.
Bluetooth LE Audio is much more power-efficient than its predecessor Bluetooth Classic Audio, so it can be added to a much wider range of slimmer and smaller hearing aids.
One of the features that hearing aid wears are likely to enjoy is a new multi-stream feature that should allow a hearing aid to stream audio to multiple other devices such as being able to listen into the programmes the silent TVs in airports and gyms are playing or real-time translation for foreign language films in the cinema.
Oticon Wins Awards
The Consumer Electronics Association (CES) has named Oticon Xceed and Oticon RemoteCare as honorees in the CES 2020 Innovations Awards.
Oticon Xceed, earned honors in the highly competitive Health & Wellness category.
Oticon RemoteCare, a new e-health solution that will enable hearing care professionals to provide convenient aftercare service to their patients, was honored in the Tech for a Better World category.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Oticon has been recognized by this prestigious international awards program. The two newest awards bring to ten the number of times Oticon has received CES Innovation Awards, including three top-ranked Best of Innovation category wins.
