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Phonak is going all-in on artificial intelligence (AI) with its new flagship hearing aid platform, Infinio, which the company says is a significant leap forward in hearing aid technology and sets a new benchmark for hearing in noise. Infinio is designed to provide unparalleled speech understanding in all listening environments with exceptional sound quality, enhanced connectivity, and new avenues for personalized user experiences.
And there is a definite show-stealer in the new Infinio family: the Audéo Sphere Infinio receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aid contains dual-chip technology, with one chip dedicated to real-time AI processing for instant separation of speech from background noise. Phonak says this gives Sphere Infinio an outstanding 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) benefit1—a level heretofore unattainable in real-world hearing aids without the use of an accessory like a remote microphone.
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Phonak’s internal studies indicate that 93% of users prefer the first-fit of Infinio over two leading competitors.2 The new hearing aid also provided a 45% reduction in listening effort in quiet listening situations for adults with moderate to severe hearing loss,3 and 21% less fatigue when the Speech Enhancer was on versus off for people with moderate to severe hearing loss.4 With the added benefits of Phonak’s Roger ON remote mic, Infinio is said to improve speech understanding by 61%.*5
The company clearly thinks Infinio is groundbreaking technology, judging from comments by Phonak staff members at a product preview and media conference in New York City on July 31. Presentations were made by Sonova Marketing Manager Florence Camenzind and audiologists Garreth Griffith and Shin-Shin Hobi, with a panel discussion featuring research audiologists Christine Jones, Kevin Seitz-Paquette, and Stefan Launer, as well as AI engineer Henning Hasemann and moderator Jennifer Strong who is an audio journalist.
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Some at Phonak believe Infinio represents one of the most consequential hearing aids introduced in over a decade. The marketing and anticipation generated around this launch by the company may not have been seen since the introduction almost 20 years ago of Phonak's Savia product line (see February 2005 Hearing Review, p 14)—which was also an advanced hearing aid featuring innovative speech-in-noise technology that helped propel the company to rapid growth.
It should be noted that Starkey Genesis AI and Oticon Intent are also AI-driven hearing aids that, like Infinio, use a Deep Neural Network (DNN), a kind of AI “brain” that helps capture and learn the specific interests of a user. When applied to hearing aids, DNN mimics how the user's brain might hear and interpret sound if they did not have hearing loss.
“We started working on AI over 10 years ago,” says Stefan Launer, PhD, Senior Vice President of Audiology and Health Innovation at Sonova, the parent company of Phonak and the world’s largest hearing aid manufacturing group which also includes the Unitron, Lyric, and Sennheiser brands. “We made major investments in AI and really started to push things in 2019-2020 in terms of product development. But we didn't aim to have the AI technology out in one or two years. We thought it was not worth developing a small DNN just to say we’ve put it into a device. We wanted to go all in. And to do that, you have to build this entire ecosystem where you can test, develop, and optimize the system; you have to create the architecture; you have to find the partners, and you have to develop the chip. So, Infinio was a major technology undertaking.”
Along with the Audéo Sphere RIC, the Infinio family features the rechargeable Audéo Infinio R and CROS Infinio RIC hearing aids, a full range of Virto Infinio rechargeable in-the-ear (ITE) devices, and battery-powered non-wireless completely-in-canal (CIC) and titanium invisible-in-canal (IIC) aids. Currently, there are no battery-powered RICs or Naída power hearing aids in the Infinio line, although these may be added in the future.
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Physically, Audéo Sphere Infinio looks much like its predecessor, Audéo Lumity, although it appears to be slightly shorter in length. Like Lumity, it has an onboard rocker switch for volume and program changes and for answering phone calls, a 3D motion sensor, and tap controls.
But the resemblances end once you look inside the case. Powered by either one or two new chips, Phonak Infinio is multifaceted. You can think of the ERA chip as a brand-new advanced “central” processing unit in charge of most functions we’ve come to expect from advanced hearing aids, like hearing in speech and noise, Bluetooth connectivity, noise reduction, and feedback control. The second chip, DEEPSONIC, is unique to the Audéo Sphere, and provides real-time AI processing to instantly separate speech from background noise.
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At the heart of all hearing aids in the Infinio family is the new ERA chip, which Phonak says supports four key pillars of the products' performance:
1) Exceptional sound quality. With APD 3.0, Phonak has created a brand-new audiological fitting model designed to give better sound quality from the first moment of the fitting, leveraging all kinds of new technology. This includes Harman Curves, a tool typically found in headphones and loudspeakers for finding the ideal frequency response for the most natural and pleasing sound experience, helping consumers “love the sound from the first fit,” says Griffiths. “And this tool has been trained by hearing providers. It uses thousands of real-world fittings.”
Infinio also includes Phonak’s AutoSense OS 6.0 with SmartSpeech technology that reportedly improves speech understanding by 16% and reduces listening effort by 45%.
2) Enhanced connectivity. Phonak says that Infinio features universal connectivity and instant compatibility with all Bluetooth devices, and is faster and easier to connect with smartphones. The ERA chip was designed to be ultra-responsive, meaning people can shift between streaming and acoustic input without missing conversations. It also provides 6 times the transmission power, translating to up to 2 times the distance for transmitting audio from a smartphone to the aids compared to two other competitors. Ultimately, this should give users more stable connectivity and consistent audio quality—even if you're moving around while streaming from a phone or other Bluetooth device. While Infinio RICs don't offer a telecoil, the ERA chip is Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) Audio enabled and Auracast-ready.
3) Tested reliability and good battery life. Advanced hearing aids are expensive, and it’s not uncommon for them to be worn all day, making device longevity, resistance to breakage, and battery life extremely valuable. Phonak says it has put Infinio through more than 135 individual “torture tests,” which sounds similar to Starkey's testing, ensuring it is mechanically robust and resistant to water and dirt/debris. It has an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP68, the highest attainable level for hearing aids, and Phonak has essentially extended the robust build of its Life model into Infinio. The hearing aids are said to provide 16 hours of battery life.
4) Innovations for personalization. New fitting software for hearing care providers includes an AI Dome Proposer that analyzes the patient’s acoustic parameters and provides recommendations for the best-performing dome to use in Audéo Infinio RIC hearing aids. Virto ITE devices are biometrically calibrated, with each device custom-built using over 1,600 data points from the ear scan to provide a comfortable and acoustically precise fitting. They also have a new charger that magnetically snaps the devices into place for optimal recharging. Additionally, Infinio employs an acoustically optimized vent that opens and closes depending on the users' listening situation (e.g., conversations or streaming audio).
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Although the ERA chip provides a lot of innovations, the AI-driven speech-in-noise DEEPSONIC chip, which resides only in the Audéo Sphere Infinio RIC, steals the show with its reported 10 dB SNR capabilities—up to 3.7 dB better than competitor devices, says Phonak.1 The company's tests indicate users are 2 to 3 times more likely to understand speech from any direction compared to the two leading competitors.6
“We designed our own chip from the ground up to do what we wanted it to do, and not to accept what currently existed in the market, not to accept something that can (and I'm oversimplifying) be taken off the shelf and used in a device,” said Griffiths. “[DEEPSONIC offers] a specific feature: Spheric Speech Clarity. This feature will allow people to hear voices in and amongst background noise, no matter where those voices are coming from. It has 53 times the processing power. It’s trained with 22 million sound samples. And…it is capable of operating at 7,700 million [7.7 billion] operations per second which [is the equivalent of] 4.5 million neural connections.”
For user adjustments, Infinio hearing aids have onboard buttons, tap controls, and the MyPhonak app. For Infinio Sphere, there is also a new slider control in the app that adjusts the strength of the DNN speech clarity and noise reduction. “So, if the user decides they need a little bit more help in this environment, they can bump up the strength of the DNN processing,” says Seitz-Paquette.” Or they can...back it off some and hear a little bit more of the noise; sometimes you want more of that situational awareness. And this is also configurable by the audiologist in the fitting software to set the default starting point.”
Along with some others from the media, I had the opportunity to try out this app function during a demonstration of the Audéo Sphere Infinio RIC. We were in a very noisy conference room with a lot of background noise and piped-in music. As I faced and talked with Phonak Research Audiologist Anne Miller, I could hear her voice very clearly and with good sound quality. Then, as she walked around me, I could variably hear or not hear her, depending on my adjustments to the DNN within the app. However, Anne's voice was almost completely attenuated if she was speaking behind me and the conversational volume suddenly rose in a group in front of me. So, listening intent remains a tricky part of the AI-driven hearing equation. It’s not perfect, but having tried out countless hearing aids for over 30 years (and now with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss of my own), I was very impressed with the device and how well it zoomed in on speech in a crowded, noisy, reverberant room.
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Phonak has gone all-in with its new ERA and DEEPSONIC chip technology in Infinio which aims to set a new benchmark for hearing in noise, sound quality, connectivity, and user personalization. HearingTracker looks forward to reporting on the independent lab findings from HearAdvisor as soon as they become available for Audéo Sphere Infinio.
“We are incredibly excited to bring the Audéo Sphere Infinio to our users,” said Sonova Group VP of Hearing Instruments Robert Woolley in a press statement. “This is more than just a hearing aid; it's a game-changer for anyone struggling with hearing in noisy environments. With our proprietary ERA and DEEPSONIC AI chips, we've achieved a new level of speech clarity that we're proud to share. This innovation highlights our dedication to providing the best possible sound quality and user experience.”
Phonak Infinio hearing aids will be available in the United States starting August 7 with roll-out dates in other countries still to be announced. For more information, please visit the Phonak website.
Audiologist Matthew Allsop provides an in-depth feature review of the new Audéo Sphere Infinio.
* Adults with sensorineural hearing loss using Roger Select with a compatible hearing aid or cochlear implant compared to hearing aid or cochlear implant alone tested in a simulated noisy restaurant setting.
Karl Strom ist der Chefredakteur von HearingTracker. Er war Gründungsredakteur von The Hearing Review und berichtet seit über 30 Jahren über die Hörhilfenindustrie.
