Yes indeed but I can’t help but feel there’s marketing sleight of hand. Say ‘AI’ to your average Joe/Joanna and they’re thinking ChatGPT, maybe DALL-E, or one of the various ‘assistants’. Maybe even Apple Intelligence.
Still, if the next gen Phonaks can process data better/faster then ask to the good I guess.
Right- AI is being used as a new tool behind the scenes to improve the software our HAs run on, not some magic in super-chips that we get to enjoy behind our ears, doing extremely clever things on the go. The proof will be in the pudding, as the saying goes.
Super chips is exactly what Phonak are imagining they will have by 2030. Or at least this is the vision in this promo piece
Three generations of Audeo out past the one we’re about to see, if they continue releasing at the rate they have, and don’t reach the goal until 2030.
WH
I have the same questions. And at least in my case, I don’t think training it on my personal experiences would help much. I can only think of two possibilities:
It learns to recognize particular individuals’ voices, and to pick those voices out of a crowd. For some, this would be useful. For others, it wouldn’t be. I would generally want my husband’s voice amplified in a noisy restaurant. But in other situations, it’s much more variable. At group social or work events in a noisy setting, I want the voices of those I’m trying to converse with amplified. That doesn’t mean I want the same people’s voices amplified if they move further away and are talking to someone else.
As @bigaltavista said, this could have applications for directional beamforming. I don’t doubt that AI can be used to more effectively eliminate voices or other noise outside the cone. Depending on how big the difference is, I might even upgrade just for that. But it’s just doing the same thing more effectively, not doing anything truly new or different. There are lots of situations where directional beamforming isn’t ideal, and if that’s all this is, people who bought into the marketing promising something revolutionary are going to be disappointed.
GPUs are not designed from the ground up for neural networks. They are more cross-purposed devices. Chips specifically designed to perform neural network functions are commonly called NPUs these days. They have much better TDPs than GPUs for neural network processing (you don’t need a kW power supply!). I would suspect that even advanced audio processing has lower computational requirements than video processing (just based on typical audio bandwidth vs. video bandwidths). So, as RobHoft said, hearing will be believing, but I don’t see a need to be highly cynical out of the starting gate. A measly Raspberry Pi 5 with a 14 TOPS NPU can ~instantaneously identify objects and poses in videos. I think in audio processing folks would be willing to accept delays of a few seconds at least. Jerking audio settings this way and that as environmental sounds fluctuate is disconcerting to most folks. https://youtu.be/HgIMJbN0DS0 (Jeff Gerling YouTube on Raspberry Pi 5 NPU AI Kit setup, power consumption, and capabilities).
Thanks, very familiar with the Pi, including the M.2 AI chip. Performance in our application is lacking. If you are indicating that hearing what someone says several seconds after their lips move is OK, wow. That would drive me nuts (a very short trip). I didn’t say highly cynical, just cynical. At 90 YO, I doubt I will see much of it. 
That isn’t how it would happen. The AI would inform the controls of the DSP/amplifier to change how sound should be processed. Sound would be sub-optimal for a few seconds but you’d have something. I hope this helps.
WH
What are you pairing with that supports LE Bluetooth? There isn’t much available currently and iPhone doesn’t have it. Might be why it isn’t working great for you.
I want it because Android will support it/ Auracast in a couple of months and will use less battery and hopefully provide more functionality. Also hopefully before I need new hearing aids there will be more support for it such as at movie theaters
Don’t confuse LE Bluetooth with LE Audio. Iphone has supported LE for many years, more than ten at least. That is the means which the MyPhonak app uses to control the phonak aids. LE audio is the new, completely different protocol for audio (which uses LE bluetooth) but is not yet supported on iphone. There are threads/topics on here which go over a thousand posts discussing LE Audio.
WH
I just hope this technology is also applied to Advanced Bionics cochlear implants.
Just saw this searching around. Phonak Hearing Aid Battery Chargers
Is it possible they’ll release the Infinio Virto soon and skip Lumity for virto? They hadn’t released virto in Lumity yet, right?
WH
So many chargers. Now hope they’ll release HA models with batteries that last a bit longer than “a full day”, i.e. 15 h or so, given how the performance of those things decays over just a few years… The box with ventilation is rather nice- the one I have has a silica cartridge that needs replacement/regeneration every two weeks.
In the link the first charger is indicated specifically for the Audéo Sphere Infinio: will it also work as a dryer?
nice video and gesture control seems like a interesting concept if they managed it to
work right.
As per real time translation, I think GN had this feature long time ago (maybe was Starkey)
I remember seeing a demo it never really took off, maybe it didnt work as intended who knows?
From Phonak’s Canadian site. This page looks like a draft page of the new features in the myPhonak app that shouldn’t have been published. It describes some interesting features with the new platform.
Wow, seems even Virto and CROS will be released at once.
Crazy.
WH
filler filler filler
And looks like new Virto comes either rechargeable or 10 battery. Ah, decisions decisions.
