The First Hearing Aid That Understands People - Oticon

The First Hearing Aid That Understands People

Imagine...
Imagine a hearing aid that
understands you. That adapts to
your life style. That makes it easy
for you to fulfil your dreams and
aspirations. That makes it much
more enjoyable to wear hearing
aids. That makes it easier to
understand others.
Adapto is that hearing aid

Three Revolutionary Innovations
Adapto is the first hearing aid
ever to address your most
important needs as a user. It
improves your speech understanding
dramatically without
overwhelming you with sound.
It eliminates feedback and the
distortion of your own voice. It’s
a hearing aid that matches not
only your hearing loss – but also
the way you live.
Adapto reflects the important
aspects of your life. It's a
solution that gives you more
pleasure and less annoyance.

VoiceFinder
Around-the-clock speech understanding
and comfort – automatically
OpenEar Acoustics
Excellent and natural sound quality
Client-Focused Fitting
A unique, individualised
hearing solution

VoiceFinder
Input signal
Microphone
The hearing aid
picks up the
sound
Speech detection
The VoiceFinder accurately
analyses the sound and detects
if speech is present
Speech Understanding and Comfort – Automatically
Inspired by the Human Brain
The human brain has the
amazing ability to help us in
everyday situations. It monitors
our environment for the
presence of speech and makes
Speech mode
When speech is detected,
the VoiceFinder instantly
provides maximum speech
understanding
Comfort mode
When speech is not
present, the VoiceFinder
automatically switches
into a more comfortable
listening mode
speech come through clearly
even in noisy surroundings. The
brain also registers when speech
is not present, and automatically
tunes out unnecessary noise.
When your hearing is impaired,
this natural ability is reduced,
yet traditional hearing aids
cannot compensate for this fact.
As a consequence, people often
experience that their hearing
instruments don’t always
provide them the support they
need.
Adapto Is Different
At the core of Adapto lies the
VoiceFinder. The VoiceFinder
automatically detects when
there is speech present in the
sound around you. It then
processes the incoming sound
digitally to ensure maximum
speech understanding.
And when no speech is present,
the VoiceFinder automatically
tunes out surrounding noise and
saves you from unnecessary
annoyance. Adapto offers you
comfort in much the same way
as glasses that automatically
darken to become sunglasses
when you’re in bright sunshine.

The Most Advanced
Technology Available
Adapto is the first hearing
aid in the world to use
voice activation. Many
advanced electronics
companies are working on
voice-activated devices:
Voice-activated mobile
telephones and robots are
among the newest innovations.
Thanks to the powerful
Adapto chip, it’s now
possible to implement
some of the world’s most
advanced technology into
a one-gram hearing aid.

When You Need It Most!
Your sound environments
change throughout the day
– sometimes even within
seconds. Some of the
sounds – like conversation
– are important and
relevant. Some are just
annoying.
VoiceFinder automatically
detects these changes in
your environment and
instantly reacts to keep you
focused on speech, while
also helping you tune out
annoying noise.

VoiceFinder
Automatic Speech Detection
When you’re around other
people, you want to be absolutely
confident that you don’t miss
a thing. You don’t want to miss a
child calling you. You don’t want
to miss part of a conversation.
That’s why the VoiceFinder is
designed to switch automatically
from comfort mode to speech
mode as soon as speech is detected.
This ensures that you’ll
always catch the start of a new
conversation or an important
message – even in noisy places.
It’s important to be able to
understand speech – when it’s
there. But it’s also a demanding
effort. Most people experience
shorter or longer periods during
the day where there is no
speech in their surroundings. In
these periods, it’s important to
allow the brain to rest so you
can be fully prepared when
speech again is present. The
VoiceFinder does this for you.
Day Long Comfort
The VoiceFinder smoothly
switches into comfort mode
when there is no speech around
you.
A Priority for Speech
Noise Speech Noise
It shields you from the annoying
input of noisy sounds in the
environment.
So what will Adapto mean to
you? At the end of the day, you
will have heard and understood
more speech, and you will be
less tired from the bombardment
of surrounding noise.
Automatic Detection
When speech is detected, the VoiceFinder automatically activates the "speech mode".This
happens instantly so no important speech information is missed.When the VoiceFinder is
certain no speech is present, it smoothly and unobtrusively changes to the "comfort mode".
Speech
mode
Comfort
mode
■ Maximum speech
understanding when
you need it
■ Maximum comfort
throughout the day

OpenEar Acoustics
OpenEar Acoustics
Large vent for more
natural sound
Trapped sound
When a hearing aid is placed in
the ear, the body’s natural
sounds – such as your own
voice or chewing – may sound
unnatural and unpleasantly
Conventional venting
Looking for A More Natural Sound?
loud, as if you were speaking
from inside a barrel. That’s
because sounds are trapped in
the ear canal. The only effective
remedy for this is to keep the
ear canal open.
However, if the ear canal isn’t
completely plugged up, the
amplified sound will leak out
from the ear and into the microphone
again in an endless loop.
This is called acoustic feedback,
and until now, it has resulted in
a very unpleasant and loud
whistling.
No More Unpleasant Side
Effects
Years of research in digital
sound processing, acoustic
feedback, and audiology have
led to the development of
Adapto’s groundbreaking
Dynamic Feedback Cancellation
approach. It cancels out any
whistling even before it’s heard
– without compromising on
speech comprehension or sound
quality.
This approach is so effective
and reliable that it’s possible to
avoid plugging up the ear. So
now, your own voice and other
sounds can reach your ear
directly and give you clear,
natural sound – without any
whistling or other annoying side
effects.
We call it OpenEar Acoustics.

■ Natural perception of
own voice
■ Excellent sound quality
■ No annoying sounds
when eating or walking

Tailored to Your Profile
By combining data about
your hearing loss with
personal information, such
as hearing aid experience,
age and lifestyle, the
Adapto fitting system
automatically suggests an
individualised prescription
that matches your personal
profile to a tee.

Client-Focused Fitting
People Are Different
You and another person can
have the exact same hearing
loss, yet very different perceptions
of sounds. That’s a fact.
What’s more, your lifestyles and
listening situations – and therefore
also expectations regarding
your hearing aids – may differ
significantly. With Adapto, your
individuality is taken into
account.
Age
Hearing-aid
experience
Unique, Individualised Hearing
Individualised Fitting
Adapto’s unique fitting software
automatically recommends the
appropriate digital speech processing
for your specific needs.
This is done by combining data
about your hearing loss with
personal information, such as
hearing aid experience, age and
lifestyle. So you can be sure that
Audiogram
Listening
situations
your hearing aids not only
match your hearing loss – they
match you!
Reflecting Your Personality
During the individualised fitting
process, you’ll experience new
ways of having your hearing
aids adjusted – with sounds
from your everyday life, pictures
and questions about your
lifestyle. Your hearing care professional
will use the most
appropriate methods to ensure
that the final hearing solution
reflects your personality and
needs.
The result – a hearing solution
custom tailored to perfection.
■ Custom tailored to
perfection
■ Individualised fitting
process

Making the Right Choice
Good Hearing is a
Good Investment
The cost per day of using
the most advanced hearing
aids available is far less
than what you pay for
driving your car. Isn’t good
hearing worth it?
(Prices on hearing instruments and other
goods vary from country to country.The
price comparisons are only approximate.)
Using Adapto
Using contact lenses
Watching TV
Driving a car
Cost per hour
A Century of Experience
Choosing the right hearing aid is
an important decision. You will
be dependent on the solution
every day in the years to come.
Oticon has designed and
developed Adapto based on
almost 100 years of experience
with hearing aids. It is one of
the world’s largest manufacturers
of hearing aids with more than
2000 employees.
Owned by a Charitable
Foundation
The majority shareholder of
Oticon is the charitable Oticon
Foundation. This foundation is
Your Guarantee for Quality Hearing Care
committed through its statutes
to support initiatives aimed at
improving the quality of life of
the hearing impaired.
The Pioneer In Digital Hearing
Aids
Today hundreds of thousands of
hearing impaired people wear
Oticon digital instruments. The
design of Adapto is based on all
the user feedback we’ve
received over the years. That’s
why we’re confident that
Adapto will provide superior
sound quality, ease of use and
comfort to you. That it will
improve your quality of life!
Professional Hearing Care
Adapto is only fitted by hearing
care professionals that have
been thoroughly trained and
know how to get the optimal
performance out of this very
advanced hearing aid. So you
can be sure that you’ll receive a
professionally fitted hearing
instrument that offers the maximum
possible improvement of
your hearing.
Not everyone with a hearing difficulty is a
candidate for hearing instruments, and the
benefits of amplification may vary. Oticon
strongly recommends that you consult your
hearing-care professional to discuss the benefits
and limitations of hearing instrument use.

■ Read more about hearing
and Adapto or visit our
homepage at:
adapto.oticon.com

www.oticon.com
We believe that it takes more than
technology and audiology to create
the best hearing instruments. That’s
why we put the individual needs
and wishes of hearing impaired
people first in our development of
new hearing care solutions.
906 41 610 06/09 01 Printed in Denmark