Innovative Halo® 2, SoundLens® Synergy® and Muse™ hearing aids highlighted with two exclusive lectures by Sr. Manager of Audiology Research, Jason Galster.
NUREMBERG, Germany (Sept. 26, 2017) — Starkey® Germany, a division of one of the world’s leading hearing technology companies, Starkey Hearing Technologies, will showcase its innovative Halo® 2, SoundLens® Synergy® and Muse™ hearing aids and offer an exclusive first look at its new Acuity™ Immersion technology at the 2017 International Congress of Hearing Aid Acousticians (EUHA 2017) Oct. 18-20 in Nuremburg, Germany.
At the congress, Starkey’s Germany team will offer an exclusive preview of the Acuity Immersion technology integrated into Starkey’s new iQ hearing aids, scheduled to launch in February 2018. The company will also introduce Achin Bhowmik, Ph.D., chief technology officer and executive vice president of engineering, Starkey Hearing Technologies. Other highlights include two exclusive lectures by Jason Galster, Ph.D., senior manager of audiology research, Starkey Hearing Technologies.
“Starkey has been a world leader in custom hearing aid technology for years with the most recent Muse hearing aids becoming one of the most popular product lines in Germany and SoundLens Synergy becoming our most popular invisible product,” said Starkey Hearing Technologies Director of European Operations, Thorsten Quaas. “The Muse hearing aid line provides customers with the highest quality of hearing technology and the personalization only Starkey custom-fit products can offer. We are excited to see the incredible advancements of both technologies in the new IQ versions come 2018.”
New Features with Acuity Immersion Technology, Inspired by Virtual Reality Research
Built with Starkey Hearing Technologies’ proven Synergy platform and Acuity OS 2 operating system, the new iQ technologies will include a suite of revolutionary new features:
- Acuity Immersion – Designed to leverage microphone placement to aid with high-frequency information for improved sound quality and sense of special awareness, this breakthrough technology has the potential to help patients relearn key acoustic brain cues to support clear speech, a sense of presence and spatial attention for vital connection to their environment.
- Acuity Immersion Directionality – Designed to restore front-to-back cues for a more natural, safer listening experience.
- Speech Indicators for Memory – Provide descriptive names for memory environments rather than numeric indicators.
- Smart VC – Allows for an increase in gain in all channels not already at maximum, to give wearers a desired increase in loudness when needed.
“As part of our commitment to lead the world in hearing innovation, we are excited to share the results of our collaboration with the world’s top researchers in today’s most advanced technologies at EUHA 2017,” said Starkey Hearing Technologies President Brandon Sawalich. “By working closely with leading researchers in the fields of neuroscience, virtual reality, audiology and signal processing to integrate advancements into our award-winning products, this technology enables us to provide patients with new levels of presence, clarity and personalization previously unattainable with traditional hearing devices.”
Starkey Audiology Research Shines with Talks on Cognition and Digital Noise Reduction
On Oct. 19 and 20, Galster will give two special lectures relating to Starkey Hearing Technologies’ research efforts in cognition and hearing loss, digital noise reduction technology and patient experiences. Topics include:
- Oct. 19 at 11:00 a.m. (GMT+2) – “Searching for specificity in cognitive screeners: MoCA vs. PNT”
- Oct. 20 at 11:30 a.m. (GMT+2) – “Does noise tolerance predict patient preference for digital noise reduction?”
About Starkey Hearing Technologies
Starkey Hearing Technologies is a privately held, global hearing technology company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Founded in 1967, the company is recognized for its innovative design, development and distribution of comprehensive digital hearing systems. The company develops, manufactures and distributes hearing aids via three distinct brands – Audibel, NuEar and its original brand, Starkey. As the only American-owned and American-operated provider of hearing technologies, Starkey Hearing Technologies is proud to support veterans and active military service personnel with the best in American innovation, including a suite of revolutionary hearing technologies and other resources. Starkey Hearing Technologies currently employs more than 5,000 people, operates 22 facilities and conducts business in more than 100 markets worldwide. For more information, visit www.starkey.com.
About Achin Bhowmik, PhD., Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering
As chief technology officer and executive vice president of engineering for Starkey Hearing Technologies, Achin Bhowmik leads the company’s research and product development efforts. Prior to joining Starkey, Bhowmik was vice president and general manager of the Perceptual Computing Group at Intel Corporation. There, he was responsible for the R&D, engineering, operations, and businesses in the areas of 3D sensing and interactive computing, computer vision and artificial intelligence, autonomous robots and drones, and immersive virtual and merged reality devices.
Bhowmik holds adjunct and guest professor positions, advises graduate research and lectures on human-computer interactions and perceptual computing technologies at the Liquid Crystal Institute of Kent State University; Kyung Hee University, Seoul; Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar; Stanford University; and the University of California, Berkeley, where he is on the board of advisors for the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership. He has over 200 publications, including two books and 34 issued patents.
About Jason Galster, Ph.D., Senior Manager of Audiology Research
As senior manager of audiology research with Starkey Hearing Technologies, Jason Galster’s research interests have spanned topics that include room acoustics, pediatrics, signal processing, and most recently, interpreting individual variability in the outcomes of patients with hearing aids. Several times each year, Galster teaches courses in hearing aids to audiology students inside and outside of the U.S.
