Powered by the new Polaris R™ platform, featuring RealSound Technology™, Oticon Real protects users from disruptive sounds so that they can remain comfortable, focused, and sharp in the real world. Backed up by extensive new evidence, Oticon Real™ is proven to deliver real-life benefits.

Copenhagen, Denmark, 9th February, 2023. Oticon is pleased to introduce Oticon Real™. The next milestone on the BrainHearing™ journey, Oticon Real builds on Oticon More™ and Oticon’s strong premium legacy to give users comfortable access to all relevant sounds, in balance, and with exceptional detail and clarity. With Oticon Real, new innovative technology designed to handle the real sounds of life is introduced, including a world’s first feature for balancing soft and loud sudden sounds, as well as a world’s first wind and handling noise prevention feature.

Soft and loud disruptive noise, such as rattling keys, ringing phones, slamming doors, and keyboard clicks, add richness and meaning to any listening environment. However, these sounds of the real world can be challenging for hearing aid users. On a daily basis, these constant disruptive sounds affect more than seven out of ten hearing aid usersi. Traditional hearing aid technology has either been too slow to react, leading to unnatural over-amplification of these sounds, or has used simple gain reduction techniques that reduce gain for all sounds in the environment, including speech. As a result, it becomes harder for users to focus, and socialising demands more effort. Nine out of ten hearing care professionals have first-hand experience with this challengeⁱ.

Introducing RealSound Technology™

With Oticon Real, Oticon recognises the category of disturbing sound and handles it in a new, optimal way. RealSound Technology includes two new innovations - Wind & Handling Stabilizer and SuddenSound Stabilizer - to process complex, unpredictable sounds with extremely high speed and precision, making sure that they are accessible, but not disruptive. Speech and other surrounding sounds are not compromised, ensuring that the brain receives access to the full sound scene.

Oticon Real reduces listening effort by 22% with the new SuddenSound Stabilizer in MoreSound Amplifier™ 2.0

The new SuddenSound Stabilizer from Oticon Real instantly detects and balances soft and loud sudden sounds so that they are audible without being disruptive or stealing focus. SuddenSound Stabilizer can handle more than 500,000 sudden sounds during a typical day, and it dynamically and instantly reduces and releases gain, as the sounds occur, with no impact on speech understanding. In Genie 2, the hearing care professional has the possibility to personalise and fine tune settings according to a user’s sound sensitivity or personal preferences, providing optimal and personalized care for the user.

In a clinical pupillometry study, Oticon demonstrates that when SuddenSound Stabilizer is activated, listening effort is reduced by a significant 22%ⁱⁱ. When presented with a series of sentences, interrupted by soft and loud sudden sounds, participants are able to stay engaged in the activity, even when the listening environment is challengingi. In conclusion, SuddenSound Stabilizer balances sudden sounds so that less listening effort is required when people wear Oticon Real hearing aids. This helps users to stay sharp and remain engaged.

Oticon Real outperforms top competitors with the world’s first wind and handling noise prevention feature in MoreSound Intelligence™ 2.0

Whether users are on the golf course, a beach, or just walking from a car to the office, wind is likely to be present and can cause unpleasant sounds in a hearing aid. Equally, incidental touching of a hearing aid from glasses, facemasks, hair, hats and so on, can cause the same affect. The new Wind & Handling Stabilizer in Oticon Real immediately detects and cleans up the signal, up to 500-times per second, to support users in having a more comfortable listening experience and provide clear contrast and better access to speech.

Wind is unpredictable and irregular, so to test how Oticon Real handled wind, Oticon carried out a technical and clinical test in one of the largest university-owned wind tunnels in the world, providing one of the toughest and most controlled environmentsi. Hearing aid users blindly compared Oticon Real with two leading competitor hearing aids, and the significant results show that with Oticon Real, wind noise is reduced (22% less loud than a competitor), and speech clarity improves (17% clearer in wind than a competitor). Neither competitor hearing aid can handle these two challenges simultaneously, whereas Oticon Real excels. Furthermore, Oticon Real vastly outperforms competitors in reducing handling noisei. In a clinical investigation, measuring the effects of touch, the handling noise in Oticon Real is up to 19dB lower than competitors, a highly significant result, which has high daily life impact for hearing aid users, 93% of whom wear glassesi.

Thomas Behrens, Vice President of Audiology, Oticon comments: “Building on the unique ability of our onboard Deep Neural Network (DNN) within the Polaris R platform to optimize sounds seamlessly across varying listening environments, the addition of the two new innovations in Oticon Real takes our DNN-based sound processing to the next level. The world is full of rich, complex, unpredictable sound, and we continue to break conventions to support our users to have a real sound experience. Based on our BrainHearing philosophy, with Oticon Real, we are taking the next step to help users navigate their environment, remain aware of their surroundings, and react when needed, so that they can stay sharp in the real world.”

The Oticon Real family includes fours styles. The miniRITE R, miniRITE T, miniBTE R and miniBTE T are available in three performance levels, nine colour options, and all feature state-of the-art connectivity, enabling direct streaming, hands-free callsiii and more.

ⁱGade, P., Brændgaard, M., Flocken, H., Preszcator, D., & Santurette, S. (2023). Wind & Handling Stabilizer – Evidence and user benefits. Oticon Whitepaper.
ⁱⁱBased on a 22% reduced mean pupil size as compared to the highest mean pupil size
ⁱⁱⁱBi-directional streaming for certified Made for iPhone hearing devices is available with iPhone 11 or later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation and 4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation and 2nd generation), iPad Air (4th generation), and iPad mini (6th generation), with software updates iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2 or later.

About Oticon

500 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss. The majority are over the age of 50 while eight percent are under the age of 18. Oticon's vision is to create a world where people are no longer limited by hearing loss. A world where hearing aids fit seamlessly into life and help people realise their full potential, while avoiding the health consequences of hearing loss. Oticon develops and manufactures hearing aids for both adults and children and supports every kind of hearing loss from mild to profound and we pride ourselves on developing some of the most innovative hearing aids in the market. Headquartered in Denmark, we are a global company and part of Demant with more than 16,500 employees and revenues of around DKK 15 billion. Changing technology. Changing conventions. Changing lives. Oticon – Life-changing hearing technology.