Software Based Technology

Before the introduction of the GN ReSound ReSoundAIR, Canta, Danavox Danalogic and ReSound Digital 5000 products, digital hearing instruments were limited in scope. Because they were hard-coded (or hard-wired), their sound processing functions were confined to those built into the system. For this reason, these products are sometimes described as "closed" digital hearing instruments.

GN ReSound digital products are different

Not only do they have far greater processing power than previous instruments, their microprocessors are similar to those used in personal computers - complete with CPU, RAM and ROM memory and an operating system. They can run several software programs at once, each dedicated to a separate sound-processing function.

This flexibility and power allows our hearing instruments to meet or excel the capabilities of all previous digital instruments, while offering entirely new benefits, such as active feedback elimination.

GN ReSound software-based technology also opens the door to future software enhancement or replacement. That's why software-based hearing technology has sometimes been called "open" digital technology.

Acknowledged by experts

It is by now acknowledged by numerous independent experts that software-based digital technology is superior to that used in ordinary digital hearing instruments. Prof. Dr. rer. Dr. med. Birger Kollmeier of the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has commented on the advantages of this technology as including wide flexibility and the ability for different programs to run on the same open system.

In the Netherlands, Prof. Dr. Wouter A. Dreschler, AMC, Clinical & Experimental Audiology, states that: “The main advantages of software-based hearing instruments will be their flexibility – not only in cases of changed automatic configuration, which can be due to progressive hearing loss, but also increased flexibility for different listening situations. Switching between programs can be done either manually or automatically.”

GN ReSound considers software-based hearing technology to be a leap forward in the evolution of hearing instruments - one that will accelerate the implementation of new hearing instrument functions in the same way that standardized PC platforms encouraged widespread software development.