How Your Home’s Acoustics Can Affect Your Hearing
Center For Hearing • March 11, 2023
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, “Approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing.” If you’re among this population, you may have noticed that the acoustics in your home can affect how well you can hear people talking to you. Below we review how this occurs and what you can do to improve your listening ability, especially if you use hearing aids.
Designs with Poor Acoustics
Unfortunately, many modern home aesthetics are not conducive to good acoustics. For example, what’s trendy right now is usually open floor plans, bare windows, hardwood floors and vaulted ceilings. These types of designs allow sound to bounce around, making it hard to hear.
Some of the most challenging rooms acoustically include the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. These rooms tend to have the fewest absorbent surfaces.
How to Improve Your Home’s Acoustics
Some ways you can improve your home’s acoustics and your listening include:
- Adding carpeting or rugs. One of the best ways you can make your home absorb more sound is to add carpeting or rugs from Jaffe Rug Gallery on Philips Highway. If you do get a rug, consider using carpet tape to prevent a tripping hazard.
- Incorporating padded furniture. More furniture is better for acoustics, especially when that furniture is padded. Consider dining room chairs with cushions in addition to sofas and other padded furniture.
- Using fabric strategically. The more fabric in your home, the less hard surfaces for sound to bounce off of. Use fabric strategically, such as table cloths, heavier curtains and tapestries, as well as drawer liners and bumper pads.
- Hanging wall art. Wall art, from gallery paintings to children’s drawings, can also help reduce noise and improve acoustics.
- Putting up room dividers. Not only do room dividers help absorb sound, but they also make large spaces smaller to help reduce reverberation.
- Turn off background noise. When you’re trying to have a conversation with someone, make sure you eliminate any background noise, like music or the television. This way, you won’t be straining to hear speech over other speech.
For more information about improving listening and communication in your home or to schedule an appointment with a hearing loss expert, call Center For Hearing today.
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Hearing technology has come a long way over the years; however, one aspect of hearing loss that many hearing aids have difficulty addressing is trouble understanding speech in noise. Fortunately, some of today’s state-of-the-art devices can solve this problem utilizing deep neural networks (DNN) and artificial intelligence (AI). Sensorineural hearing loss causes difficulty understanding speech in background noise. This type of hearing loss is caused by damage to the hair cells of the inner ear that convert soundwaves into electrical energy, which are then interpreted by the brain. This causes the quality and quantity of the signal sent from the ears to the brain to diminish over time, resulting in the brain expending more energy and effort to make sense of it. DNNs may help improve the transmission of the neural code, making hearing easier on the brain. [1] It’s important to know what DNNs are to understand how they can help. DNNs are a subset of AI. They rapidly analyze large data sets so that they can teach hearing aids and other technological devices how to respond to data like a human would, all while verifying accuracy and making corrections. DNNs are beneficial in hearing technology because they can help with speech enhancement. DNNs can be applied as “time-frequency masks,” meaning select sounds—like speech—are allowed while other sounds are suppressed. DNNs can also identify and separate multiple voices, selecting a primary voice to emphasize and secondary voices to suppress. This feature can help hearing device wearers in a variety of settings. For example, at a restaurant or party, the hearing device can emphasize a conversation partner, allow other nearby voices at a reduced volume and suppress background noises such as dishes clinking. Schedule an appointment to talk to Center for Hearing about our vast state-of-the-art hearing solutions today— (239) 434-0086. [1] Published by Douglas L. Beck. (2021, January 15). Deep neural networks in hearing devices. Retrieved April 2, 2021 from https://www.hearingreview.com/hearing-products/hearing-aids/deep-neural-networks
A Boston biotech startup is attempting to develop the first gene therapy treatment for hearing loss. If successful, it promises to offer new hope to the estimated 300,000 Americans who suffer from gene-based hearing loss—a number that includes more than 4,000 newborns. The timing may not be ideal, but biotech companies have been largely immune from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing recession. Developing new drugs takes years, so these companies are better able to weather storms. And the efforts of biotechnology companies that are focusing on tools to prevent and treat potentially fatal health threats has resulted in soaring stock values for many of these companies, even in the face of the current crisis. Akouos, the Boston startup, was founded in 2016. Its goal is to develop the first gene therapy to treat hearing loss and is targeting a specific form of deafness that results from mutations in a single gene. They are experimenting with adeno-associated viruses, using them as vectors to deliver DNA that encodes a functioning gene in certain target cells. Around 7,000 people are afflicted with this type of genetic hearing loss. Adeno-associated viruses are considered viable candidates because they don’t usually cause disease and can be customized to treat a variety of genetic conditions. The company has partnered with two influential organizations: Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Lonza, a Swiss manufacturing company that holds contracts with various pharmaceutical makers. Manny Simons, Akouos’ co-founder and chief executive, holds a degree in neuroscience from Harvard College, a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His desire to help those with hearing loss stems from his passion for playing the piano. “It’s easy to take hearing for granted,” said in a Boston Globe interview. “Maybe because music has been important to me, it’s something that I take a little less for granted.” [1] [1] Saltzman, J. (2020, June 22). Akouos, a startup developing a gene therapy for hearing loss, raises IPO value to $125 million - The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 30, 2020, from https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/22/business/ipo-upped-akouos-boston-startup-working-gene-therapy-hearing-loss/
