Artificial intelligence could be the key to helping hearing-impaired people tune out the din and hear what's important, according to Google and Australian researchers. or signup to continue reading The tech giant this week revealed work on its Australian Future Hearing Initiative had progressed to training hearing aids and cochlear implants using AI technology and could be ready for trials soon. If successful, the technology could improve results from both devices and help users navigate noisy environments.
The hearing research is one of several AI health projects being undertaken by Google, with others focusing on detecting diseases such as tuberculosis and breast cancer. Google senior research scientist Simon Carlile said he began investigating the impact of advanced technologies hearing devices after sitting beside his father at a family gathering. "When I asked him why he wasn't wearing his hearing aids, he said that in noisy situations like this they just don't help," he said.
"It made me very sad at the time that where he really wanted to and where he really needed to interact with people, with his whole family around him, he couldn't." Hearing aids could make noisy environments like parties and restaurants difficult to navigate for users, Dr Carlile said, as they amplified the noise around them without isolating important, nearby conversations. To investigate whether technology like AI could assist, Google teamed with Australian research groups including Cochlear, Macq.