And since all adjustments are logged, professionals can use the data when counseling patients or making additional manual programming refinements. Adjustments are made by the system - without extra effort for the Hearing Care Professional. This proprietary technology not only records information, it also incorporates an on-board learning system that automatically fine-tunes itself based on the wearer's volume preferences for different listening environments. SoundSmoothing uses envelope slope adjustment to specifically address the problem of these abrupt annoying environmental noises.
Traditional noise reduction algorithms cannot provide the wearers relief from transient noise because these sounds are not recognized as noise by the digital classification system. It smoothes sounds like rustling paper, clanging dishes, breaking glass, and even high heels click-clacking on a hard floor. "We designed SoundSmoothing for CENTRA to specifically reduce annoying transient noise signals without affecting speech so patients could experience true natural and comfortable sound quality."Ī new feature of the Siemens sound processing system, SoundSmoothing is the first and only sound suppression system that reduces annoying impulsive non-speech sounds, while leaving speech signals intact. "A major problem with today's noise reduction systems is that they do not classify transient sounds - rustling papers and clanging utensils - as actual noise, yet wearers find these noises extremely annoying," explains Thomas Powers, PhD, Chief Research Officer for Siemens Hearing Instruments. CENTRA and other innovations from Siemens were shown at the AudiologyNOW convention from April 6 - 8, in Minneapolis, MN. CENTRA also offers e2e wireless™ (ear-to-ear) which couples signal processing to enable precise localization.
The system's DataLearning™ technology learns the wearer's loudness preferences and adjusts automatically in real-world listening situations. CENTRA's SoundSmoothing™ suppresses impulsive non-speech sounds that traditional noise reduction and speech enhancement systems cannot effectively process. Minneapolis, Minnesota, ApSiemens Hearing Instruments today introduced CENTRA™, a new hearing system equipped with new "wearer-centered" technologies: transient noise reduction, trainable volume control and wireless synchronization. CENTRA's Trendsetting Technologies Revolve Around Wearers.