What are directional microphones?
Directional microphones are used to help people hear in the presence of background noise. They do this by amplifying the sounds in front of the wearer, and reducing (not eliminating) the sounds to the sides and rear. Basically, you hear the best in the direction you’re facing. While directional microphones can be a great help in noise they may not be appropriate in situations where it is important to hear well from all directions. Most directional microphones are either manually selected by the wearer via a switch on the hearing aid or a remote control, or they are switched automatically by the hearing aid using a digital switching algorithm. Brand new applications work by using a directional microphone in one ear and a traditional in the other, eliminating the need for manual switches or depending on the hearing aid to “know” when to switch.
Usually, listeners are facing the person they are speaking to. Noise, however, can come at us from all sides. Directional (or multiple) microphones work in such a way that the hearing aid user receives the maximum amplification from sound sources in front of him (her) and sounds from the sides and rear receive minimum amplification.
Directional microphones are designed to be able to pick up sounds that come from in front of you much better than sounds to the side or behind you, making it easier for you to focus on what you want to listen to in a noisy place. Most digital hearing aids with directional microphones allow you to manually switch between directional and all-around sound, depending on what you need to hear at the time. There are some digital aids however that can constantly monitor the sound around you and automatically switch to optimize your hearing in any given situation. Can digital aids help reduce whistling? Yes. Some digital hearing aids have ‘feedback cancellation’. This means that they can automatically reduce the whistling that bothers many people who use hearing aids. More comfortable listening Many digital hearing aids have a feature called ‘wide dynamic range compression’ that can be adjusted separately in each of several ‘bands’ or ‘channels’. It means the aid can be programmed to suit your
