Switzerland’s Sonova, the global hearing care company, has introduced a hearing aid that leverages real-time AI to improve speech clarity from background noise. The hearing aid is named Sphere Infinio, and the company is also launching a new Infinio platform along with the product.

Arnd Kaldowski, Sonova’s Group CEO says: “Solving the speech-in-noise problem is the long-standing goal of modern hearing aid development and essential to improving the quality of life of millions of people with hearing loss. While every user would state we have come a long way in the last 10 years, they will say they still can’t understand conversations as well as they would like to, when background noise is present, like in many crowded places, such as public transport or restaurants. We are convinced that with our new technology, we can make a significant difference for people in need.”

In a statement, Sonova shared that “Real-time AI means that the AI DNN (Deep Neutral Network) has been trained on sound samples to separate speech from background noise by processing the audio signal in real-time. This approach is fundamentally different from the use of AI for sound or acoustic scene classification, which is used in current hearing aids in the market. The real-time AI signal processing is performed by the DEEPSONIC chip, which is included in the Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio platform together with the Phonak ERA chip.”

The company believes that Infinio and its existing Lumity platform will drive the future growth of its hearing instrument business, which brings in half of its total sales.