New Super-Intelligent Hearing Instrument Adapts to User Wishes

(Copenhagen/Denver, April 18, 2007) Tomorrow at the AAA trade fair in Denver, Colorado, GN ReSound will be presenting the first of its new products planned for this year: its advanced top-end hearing instrument, the Azure™, to be launched on its first markets as early as next week.

The Azure features three important innovations. The hearing instrument automatically finds the sound level that suits its user best in different sound environments. At the same time, the Azure device makes use of the fact that people naturally use both ears, partly to focus on a conversation and partly to listen to their surroundings, and the Azure recreates this ability. Finally, the device is also the first hearing instrument to come with a wireless headset.

“Digital hearing instruments often require users to adapt to the technology. The idea with the Azure is to do the opposite: to adapt the technology to each user, respecting the fact that no two people hear alike. Each person should have the sound reproduced naturally in exactly the way that suits him or her. We make sure that happens, with the Azure,” said GN ReSound CEO Jesper Mailind.

The Azure’s Environmental Optimizer™ system takes into account the fact that people perceive sounds differently. Other digital hearing devices do not, which is why many users feel the sound is amplified too much in noisy environments and amplified too little in quiet environments. This is normally remedied by the user turning the sound up and down manually, but the Azure automatically adjusts itself to the user’s surroundings. It does this by measuring the ambient sound level and remembering the user’s sound level preferences in certain situations. The Azure puts this information together and automatically selects the amplification level that is best for the user in the specific situation. There are seven factory preset sound environments in the Azure, but the device can also be adapted to fulfill user wishes.

The Natural Directionality™ system utilizes the fact that your brain is able to direct one ear to focus on the sound from a person you are speaking with, while the other ear concentrates on sounds from your surroundings. This ability is lost with other hearing instruments, whose traditional directionality causes the users to lose their sense of what is going on around them so they experience what is called “the tunnel effect.” With the Azure, each device can receive and process different signals from its surroundings binaurally. To simplify a bit, this means the brain regains control over the hearing process. The effect is that users hear the conversation with the person in front of them clearly while also hearing a natural reproduction of the sound from their surroundings – a kind of surround sound experience. Users can even follow a conversation with many people in different directions.

The Azure comes with a charger so users don’t have to change batteries; they simply allow the Azure to recharge overnight for another up to 28 hours of use. The Azure is thus the second rechargeable hearing instrument on the market, with the ReSound Pulse as the first. The Azure also comes with a wireless Bluetooth headset: the first one developed specially for wireless communication between a hearing device and both fixed-line and cell phones.
“Using telephones is a problem for many people with hearing instruments. They often get acoustic feedback or interference, so users either have to take out their devices before answering the phone, or they have to adjust the device and their cell phone at the same time. Both are difficult. We don’t believe that the solution is equipping users with boxes to wear and activate when the phone rings: that’s basically an artificial mechanism. It is much more natural to give users a solution that is both socially acceptable and widely used, i.e. a fashionable wireless headset. That’s why we’ve made a headset specially for the Azure that allows users to use the phone whenever and wherever they want,” said GN ReSound Senior Vice President Henrik Wiboltt.

New Products in 2007
The Azure is the first of a number of new products GN ReSound plans to launch globally this year under its ReSound and Beltone brands. Last year, GN launched 11 new products. ReSound CEO Mailind doesn’t want to reveal how many products will be launched this year just yet, but said it would be a significant number evenly distributed across all price segments. “Innovation is crucial for us. We have a market in which new products are synonymous with growth, and we want to lead in the development of advanced instruments,” he explained.

Complete Family
Azure is a complete product family, with seven variants ranging from tiny completely-in-the-canal solutions to more powerful behind-the-ear versions for people with more severe hearing loss. The series comes in 18 different colors, and the wireless Bluetooth headset is part of the package with most models.
The Azure will make its debut on the US market as early as Monday (April 23) and will be available at clinics in Denmark and other countries at the beginning of May. The global roll-out for the Azure is expected to be completed by the beginning of June.

For additional information, please contact
Jesper Mailind, President and CEO, GN ReSound, tel. (45) 4575-1000, (+45) 2092-1260
Henrik Wiboltt, Senior Vice President, GN ReSound, tel. (+45) 4575-1200, (+45) 4054-3170
www.resoundazure.com and www.resound.com