Oticon Announces Oticon Intent™, the World’s First Hearing Aid with User-Intent Sensors

Oticon introduces an innovative new hearing aid that can understand a hearing aid user’s listening intentions and respond accordingly.

With the launch of the new premium hearing aid, Oticon Intent, global hearing aid manufacturer, Oticon, is taking the next important step on the journey to solve the No.1 challenge for people with hearing loss – hearing speech in noise. With new groundbreaking 4D Sensor technology, Oticon Intent™ can understand what users want and need to listen to and adapts the support it provides seamlessly to individual needs.

Our ears gather the sounds around us, but the true hero in sound processing is the brain, constantly working to make sense of sound. Based on this, Oticon’s unique BrainHearing™ approach to creating technology supports the natural way the brain works. New BrainHearing insights show that head and body movement gives important information about what’s most crucial for hearing aid users to hear at a given moment. These insights powered the development of the new 4D Sensor technology embedded in Oticon Intent, introducing a better way to ensure the brain has all the details it needs.

While being physically active, it’s necessary to be aware of surroundings to understand them and move around safely. In conversation, users tend to keep their heads still to engage with a single person or move their heads in a group conversation to engage with different people. When struggling to hear what someone is saying, users are likely to lean-in to listen. Oticon Intent combines all these inputs to understand the hearing aid user’s listening intentions and adapt accordingly.

“BrainHearing is central to everything we do because sound is a vital source of stimulation for the brain,” said Thomas Behrens, Vice President of Audiology at Oticon. “If you have a hearing loss, you can actually protect your brain from cognitive decline by using active hearing aids which enable you to connect with others and let you engage in life to the fullest. With Oticon Intent we ensure hearing takes less effort and that you can communicate with ease in any situation. You can also enjoy future-proof, next-generation connectivity technology, crafted into the smallest form factor we have designed to date within this category. We are confident that with Oticon Intent, you will be able to seamlessly engage in life and the digital world like never before.”

Even in challenging, noisy environments, Oticon Intent makes it possible to:

• Move through a crowd with seamless awareness, while orienting to the surrounding sounds.
• Begin chatting with a group of people, thanks to heightened access to voices and balanced background sounds so they are not bothering, while still accessible.
• Start a more intimate conversation with one person, gaining full access to the speaker’s voice amidst the noise all around.

Engage in the digital world like never before
Oticon Intent offers the next generation of Bluetooth® audio, with LE Audio Bluetooth, delivering easy connection to more smart devices* than ever, allowing for a detailed, high quality sound experience for hands-free calls and direct streaming of music, audio book and much more. By double-tapping the Oticon Intent hearing aid, answering calls becomes a simple task. With improved rapid charging, Oticon Intent provides more than a full day’s battery life, after just two hours of charge. The new hearing aids are also ready for future communication technologies such as Auracast™ broadcast audio.**

To explore this revolutionary hearing aid that helps users to engage in life like never before, visit Hearing aids, information on hearing loss and tinnitus | Oticon

-ENDS-

  • Android™ devices need to have Android 14 and support LE Audio Bluetooth to allow hands-free communication or the Android Protocol for Audio Streaming (ASHA) to allow direct streaming to Oticon Intent. Please visit Hearing aids, information on hearing loss and tinnitus | Oticon for more information.
    ** Android™, Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. The Auracast™ word mark and logos are trademarks owned by the Bluetooth SIG. Any use of such marks by Demant is under license. Other trademarks and tradenames are those of their respective owners.

About Oticon
More than 700 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss. The majority are over the age of 50 while eight percent are under the age of 18. Oticon’s vision is to create a world where people are no longer limited by hearing loss. A world where hearing aids fit seamlessly into life and help people realise their full potential, while avoiding the health consequences of hearing loss. Oticon develops and manufactures hearing aids for both adults and children and supports every kind of hearing loss from mild to profound and we pride ourselves on developing some of the most innovative hearing aids in the market. Headquartered in Denmark, we are a global company and part of Demant with more than 20,000 employees and revenues of around DKK 20 billion. Changing technology. Changing conventions. Changing lives. Oticon – Life-changing hearing technology.

Related: Philips HearLink 9050 to hit Costco soon? With similar tech to Oticon Intent?

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Weird how it doesn’t mention iPhone. Presumably it is also Made for iPhone as well as being LE Audio compatible?

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Technical Datasheet

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What I want to see is the list of compatible devices

Android™ devices need to have Android 14 and support LE Audio Bluetooth to allow hands-free communication or the Android Protocol for Audio Streaming (ASHA) to allow direct streaming to Oticon Intent. Please visit Hearing aids, information on hearing loss and tinnitus | Oticon for more information.

With filter:

Hearing aids, information on hearing loss and tinnitus | Oticon

I could not find in the data sheet the width in mm of the rechargeable version. Did I overlook it? Does anyone have the H/L/W dimensions of the recharge version and the battery version if there is one?

Intent hearing sounds good in theory, but I wonder if it would work for folks like me: 1.) cinderblock ears and 2.) brain + ear doesn’t seem to process the deluge of sounds coming at me. At least that was my experience with the Oticon OPN (granted years ago).

I get that folks LEAN IN to try and hear better in loud places, but physically leaning in doesn’t ampify the person’s speech coming at me. It’s like wearing my hair in a ponytail to expose my ears isn’t going to make a jot of difference in how well I hear.

I’d be SO VERY curious to put these Intent aids to the test. O’course, Oticon would probably not want to hear from a cranky, jaded, veteran user like ME.

On the other hand, maybe I could train the aids to actually drill down to the speech if it learns how I try to hear better in loud places. I lean forward, cup a hand behind each ear and say, “WHAAAAA??!” That gets the person to talk louder, and hey, maybe that’s as good as it gets?
:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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I did a Google search for Oticon Intent technical white paper pdf and the below screenshot is the result. It looks like they’ve made available for download a whitepaper for the Intent that talks about their 4D sensor and their DNN 2.0.

But when I clicked on the link, it just rerouted me to the www.oticon.com generic website. So I’m guessing that because I’m in the US, Oticon doesn’t allow me to access that link where the Intent whitepaper resides for some reason?

I wonder if maybe somebody outside of the USA can try to access this whitepaper and make it available somewhere for us to download? Hopefully this whitepaper reveals enough details on how their 4D sensor works and how the DNN 2.0 is different than the original DNN. Thanks.

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4D Sensor technology and Deep Neural Network 2.0 in Oticon Intent

Expanding personalised fitting opportunities with Oticon Intent

Oticon Intent™ - Clinical evidence

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Or just use a VPN… @Volusiano they know you are checking out their secrets.

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Just to play devil’s advocate: By the time I’ve cocked my head or leaned in to try to hear something, I’ve usually already missed whatever it was! :laughing:

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But there could be more coming your way…:slight_smile:

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Page 13 of this investor presentation suggests the new Demant tech will hit Costco sometime this or next month.

demant-investor-presentation-annual-report-2023.pdf (3.2 MB)

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Noice!

WH

at least 20…

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Hmmmm…So supposedly this aid can decipher the ‘brain’s intent’ based on external physical cues–that is, if I bend my neck one way, one intent is suggested; the other, another.

O.K I won’t go into my whole disagreement with the notion of the Brain as being the ruler of all in our experience. What about our emotions? When you listen intently to music, you’re whole being is engaged: body, heart, soul, mind. But never mind: my bigger critique is how these aids use a kind of hocus pocus sales language to say that they can adjust your aids according to your intent by reading your thoughts. And yes, they deliberately intend to suggest this. I mean, if you intend something, your will and your thoughts are involved, no?
when mind reading HAs appear on the market, I’ll take notice. PRobably to stay away from them. Meanwhile, watch the sales language here! the aids read minimal body language.
Maybe I’m wrong, and reviews will come back with lots of gasps of delight!

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And if I’m at the cinema with my head fixed towards the screen, how does he know what I intend to understand?

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Apparently, if you look at one or more speech sources, the aids remember this direction and focus on it more than others

what happens when the scene changes? Or someone next to you spills their popcorn? Or the person behind you laughs? Or everyone around you laughs? What’s your ‘intention’ in real time in the midst of this second by second changing real environment?

I find it interesting that many folks who adore science and technology are the first to engage in magical thinking when it comes to new devices.

If a hearing aid can read my inner thoughts and interests based on slight tilts of my head for who knows what reasons…maybe I have sudden pain in my shoulder, or a scratch in my neck,…I must be a mushroom.

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