Now that the Apple Watch is here, we hope to see useful applications to support Health Tech devices. Beltone, a leading maker of digital hearing aids, has already release an app that they hope will help their customers.
Digital hearing aids do much more than simply amplify ambient sounds. Signal processing and sophisticated filters make it possible to customize a hearing aid’s performance to match the specific hearing loss of individual users. This new breed of device even makes it possible to create and store different profiles for different settings. You might have one configuration for when you are in your office, another for when you’re in a noisy restaurant, and perhaps another for when you are outdoors.
The new Beltone HearPlus app for the Apple Watch is intended to make it easier to control your hearing aids, using your watch as a controller. Just a few taps on your wrist and you can discretely switch to different settings or adjust the volume. You can also use your watch to reduce wind noise. You can even use the watch to adjust for background noise levels on the fly. The program is available as a free download from the App Store.
This synergy between a smart watch and other wearable Health Tech devices makes a lot of sense. The watch can provide a more convenient and discrete way to control the devices, and to report alerts or other information. It also can provide a gateway to relay performance information and other data for storage, sharing, and analysis. This application from Beltone is a good example of how this can work.
