Hearing

These glasses from Nuance Audio hide clever tech in the frame to help you hear better in noisy environments, without the need for traditional in-ear hearing aids. They'll run for 8 hours on a charge, and are indistinguishable from regular glasses.

Noisy environments pose a challenge to deaf people, particularly when they're trying to discern what a specific person within such a setting is saying. AirCaps glasses are designed to help, by providing real-time captioning to the wearer.

Even when using a hearing aid, it can be quite difficult for deaf people to make out specific individuals' voices in noisy environments. The new SpeakerBeam system could help, by automatically recognizing and boosting a select person's voice.

A team of researchers has created a way to inexpensively manufacture acoustic head simulators. They can help measure the way we take in and process sound – especially in noisy environments like cocktail parties.

When deaf athletes with cochlear implants take part in sports, they have to wear headgear that protects the external parts of their implant. A new wearable serves that same purpose, while allowing users to hear the sounds around them much better.

Hearing aids may indeed be commonly used and relied upon in the First World, but they're still too expensive for many people in developing nations. The experimental LoCHAid device, however, is aimed at changing that.

​Amongst the challenges faced by the deaf is what's known as the "cocktail party effect," in which they have difficulty discerning one speaker's voice from others in crowded, noisy environments. A new device could help, however – by buzzing two of their fingers.

"A volume control for your ears." That's what Dutch company Knops promises with its eponymous unpowered noise control ear plugs, which give you the ability to choose between four levels of noise filtering. We put them through the uncompromising test of an aggressively loud children's show.

A small Australian company is hoping to blow multi-thousand-dollar prescription hearing aids out of the water. This US$449 pair of over-the-counter, Bluetooth hearing augmentation earbuds can test and adjust to your hearing, connect to your phone, and separate voices from background noise.

They’re not just Bluetooth earbuds. With mics in each ear and an adjustable intelligent noise control feature, IQbuds let you experience the world around you with a kind of bionic hearing. In noisy environments, they let you separate voices out of the background noise to make conversations easier.

​Inside everyone's middle ear are three tiny linked bones known as ossicles. When these bones are damaged, a condition called ossicular conductive hearing loss results. A more effective treatment for it may now be on its way, thanks to 3D printing technology.

The nura headphones aren't your typical over-ear cans. They also rock an in-ear bud inside each cup and tune the music to the individual wearer. We got to try out a prototype last year, and now the production version has been launched. Though stocks are limited for 2017.