Affordance of real-time personalization and adaptation of hearing aid settings

Abstract

Hearing aids are becoming increasingly reliant on interaction with personal mobile computing devices such as smartphones. However, the affordance of these “connected” hearing aids (typically with a remote interface on a user’s smartphone) can be poor, particularly for the geriatric population, which comprises the majority of hearing aid users. In this work, we present several prototypes and preliminary results that explore novel interaction methods allowing users to personalize sound settings on hearing aids which are connected to smartphones and wearable devices while engaging with an environmentally-aware adaptive system. This work addresses both the affordance issues observed among hearing aid users, as well as the lack of HCI research on personalization of hearing aid sound settings for different listening environments.