WIDEXPRESS FEBRUARY 2024 . ISSUE NO . 54
INTRODUCING THE WIDEX SMARTRIC™: WHEN DESIGN MEETS PERFORMANCE BY LAURA WINTHER BALLING, PH.D., RADOSLAV DARULA, PH.D., BERND MEISTER, M.SC., DANIEL PARKER, M.SC., PATRICK SCHEEPER, PH.D., AND ELISABET TIANA-ROIG, PH.D. At Widex, we believe that the natural auditory system is best equipped for processing detailed and authentic sound. We therefore manipulate less to craft a more natural hearing experience and only use drastic processing when needed. Overall, our goal is to provide a sound so natural that people forget about their hearing loss. To pursue our goal consistently, we follow our sound philosophy (Ziegler et al., 2023) and make design decisions accordingly. To this end, the Widex sound philosophy is grounded in three fundamental principles: Principle 1: Respect All Sounds; Principle 2: Tailor to the User; and Principle 3, which is especially relevant for this article: Focus on What Matters. With the third principle, Focus on What Matters, we strive to create a seamless sound experience that is optimized for real-life hearing, allowing the user to stay focused on the sound they want to hear, without losing awareness of their environment. In our latest innovation, we use a unique hearing aid design to achieve just that: helping the user focus on what matters. We are proud to introduce our new Widex SmartRIC™, in a groundbreaking L-shaped form factor that
combines great design with great sound. Importantly, the great design – shown in Figure 1 – is not only for the sake of offering users an attractive look and feel, but also because the design choices support important audiological benefits. This makes the SmartRIC an attractive solution for many different types of users: users with communication needs in background noise can benefit from improved directionality; active users can enjoy the reduced wind and touch noise; and people on the move will appreciate excellent battery life and a stylish portable charger. In addition to these new improvements, the SmartRIC comes, of course, with the signature Widex natural sound for natural hearing, supported by many specific features such as TruAcoustics, which tailors the sound to the individual user, and the PureSound program for users with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. This article describes a range of studies and measurements that show the multiple benefits of the SmartRIC for its broad group of potential users. These include improved directionality (Study 1), reduced wind noise (Study 2), reduced touch noise (Study 3), and great usability (Study 4), as well as improved battery life and charger portability.
Figure 1: Illustration of the Widex SmartRIC and its portable charger.
WIDEXPRESS 1