Directional Microphones

Directional microphones are an effective way of increasing speech intelligibility in the presence of background noise.  Background noise can be either speech or mechanical noise, such as an air conditioner or dishwasher.  Using state of the art digital technology, it is possible to filter out background noise that is mechanical because it is not similar to speech.  However, the closer the background sound gets to speech, it is no longer possible to filter (or average) it out of the hearing aid.  If it is done, it will also cancel what you want to hear. 

This is the role for directional microphones.  They can reduce speech noise that is behind you by as much as 6 decibels.  This is significant in increasing speech understanding in noise.  If the noise moves or you move, a hearing aid with an adaptive directional microphone will change its noise cancellation pattern and continue to cancel the noise at the side or rear.  Adaptive directionality is the most effective directional microphone available in some digital hearing instruments.  Although directional microphones do not work for everyone, the results are quite positive.  We commonly hear, “It sounds like the person talking to me just got closer.”   If you have questions about your hearing loss and possible benefit with directional microphones, please give us a call.