Question
How does Signia’s expanded Augmented Xperience (AX) platform help hearing aid wearers?
Answer
Signia continues a tradition of delivering iconic innovations with our newly expanded AX platform, which now includes three new features and a new form factor. Meanwhile, the efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of Signia AX has also been validated through a series of recently published studies.
The three new features – available for new and current Signia AX wearers – are all designed to enhance the hearing aid experience while fulfilling Signia’s goal to empower wearers with outstanding speech understanding:
- Own Voice Processing (OVP™) 2.0 harnesses the split processing capability of the AX platform to process the patient’s voice separately from simultaneous ambient sounds for a more natural sounding own voice.*
- Auto EchoShield analyzes the listening environment and automatically adjusts to reduce bothersome echoes and reverberation, helping patients better understand speech in reverberant environments such as large auditoriums or even houses with tiled floors and high ceilings.**
- The Signia HandsFree feature enables patients with select iOS devices to hold conversations through their Signia AX hearing aids without having to speak directly into their phone or tablet – with exceptional speech clarity for the wearer and their conversation partner.
We’ve also introduced Pure 312 AX – a small and discreet RIC with traditional batteries that joins our other AX devices: Pure Charge&Go T AX, our smallest rechargeable RIC to date, and Insio Charge&Go AX, the world’s first custom with contactless charging and Bluetooth connectivity. Now patients who prefer replaceable batteries can benefit from the many advantages of the AX platform – the three features listed above, streaming to iOS and Android™ smartphones, Signia’s unique split-processing via our Augmented Focus™ technology, and much more.
When it comes to split processing – totally unique to the AX platform – a series of studies, published over the past nine months, collectively shed further light on the benefits of this technology for patients. When examined as a whole, these studies demonstrate the efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of split processing, three important factors that drive quality patient outcomes. As many clinicians know, efficacy (Does the feature work under ideal conditions?), effectiveness (Does the feature work in real-world listening conditions?), and efficiency (Is the feature cost-effective for patients and your practice?) are three interconnected variables needed to obtain consistent, high-quality outcomes in the clinic.
Together, the results of these studies show a clear and consistent advantage for Signia AX’s split processing in both listening comfort and speech understanding in noise, compared to traditional forms of noise reduction technology. In one of the studies, participants were fit with Signia AX programmed to the NAL-NL2, for two different conditions: ADIR+DNR (Augmented Focus “Off”) and ADIR+DNR+Split processing (Augmented Focus “On”). The addition of the split processing feature had a significant benefit for speech recognition, improving the SRT-80 by 3.9 dB SNR. Depending on the speech material and listening situation, an SNR improvement of this magnitude can improve speech recognition by 40% or more (Jensen et al 2021a).
As a result, hearing care professionals can be confident that our newly enhanced Signia AX technology can lead to better patient results.
These recent studies all support the efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of split processing found on the Signia AX platform:
- Jensen N.S., Høydal E.H., Branda E. & Weber J. (2021a). Augmenting speech recognition with a new split-processing paradigm. Hearing Review, 28(6), 24-27.
- Jensen, N., Powers, L., Haag, S., Lantin, P., Høydal, E. (2021b). Enhancing real-world listening and quality of life with new split-processing technology. AudiologyOnline, Article 27929. Retrieved from https://www.audiologyonline.com
- Korhonen, P., Slugocki, C., & Taylor, B. (2022). Study reveals Signia split processing significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio. AudiologyOnline, Article 28224. Available at www.audiologyonline.com
- Kuk F., Slugocki C., Davis-Ruperto N. & Korhonen P. (2022). Measuring the effect of adaptive directionality and split processing on noise acceptance at multiple input levels. International Journal of Audiology, 11, 1-9.
- Slugocki C, Kuk F, Korhonen P, Ruperto N. (2021). Using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) to evaluate split processing in hearing aids. Hearing Review, 28(10), 32-34.
- Slugocki C, Korhonen P. (2022). Split-processing in hearing aids reduces neural signatures of speech-in-noise listening effort. Hearing Review, 29(4), 20-23.
*Not available in Insio C&G AX
**Level 7 AX Technology only
