Oticon introduces the world's first hearing aid with 4D Sensor technology to understand each user’s listening intentions and seamlessly support individual listening needs, while giving access to the full sound environment. Yet again, Oticon has made significant progress in innovation, taking performance and user benefits of their unique BrainHearing™ technology to the next level.

Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 February 2024 – The primary challenge for people with hearing loss is understanding speech in complex environments, which typically comes with a lot of noise and other sounds that are disruptive to communication. To address this, hearing aids should understand how individuals behave within a sound environment and adapt signal processing according to their changing listening needs. Traditional hearing aids provide support by implementing a directional approach, where Oticon always gives the user access to the full, 360° sound environment. Based on their unique BrainHearing™ philosophy, Oticon continuously develops pioneering technology that impacts people’s lives. With the new Oticon Intent™ hearing aid, Oticon takes a giant leap on this journey, by providing individualised support for users within the same complex environment.

4D Sensor technology provides intention-based personalisation

Oticon Intent is designed considering that different users have very individual and greatly varying listening needs - even in the same sound environment. It features the world’s first user-intent sensors which can capture a person’s unique communication goal and then seamlessly provide the brain with the right hearing support in any situation. This personalised support makes a significant difference for users, especially in very complex listening environments, where traditional hearing aids provide the same support, regardless of the individual listening needs. By monitoring conversation activity, head movement, body movement, and the acoustic environment, Oticon Intent is the first hearing aid in the world to recognise when the user’s needs change and to seamlessly adapt sound processing to support these specific needs, providing the brain with tailored support in any situation. This 4D Sensor technology alone improves users' speech comprehension by 15%. Furthermore, the outcomes of a brain imaging study showed that the 4D Sensor technology helps users balance their attention towards the sound sources that they intend to listen to.¹

Industry-leading sound processing gives access to 35% more speech cues

Higher clarity and better balance is provided by Oticon Intent as a result of the rapid and effective sound processing of MoreSound Intelligence 3.0, with up to 12dB noise suppression. Thanks to this innovative new sound processing, which ultimately provides users with clearer speech, Oticon Intent delivers an astounding 35% more access to speech cues compared to Oticon’s preceding premium hearing aid.²

Brand-new Deep Neural Network enabling better access to all sounds

Oticon Intent debuts a second generation Deep Neural Network (DNN 2.0) which has been trained using a greater diversity of complex sound scenes as well as a whole new way of learning from the sound it is exposed to during training. This advanced technology is designed to drive a hearing aid so that it works more like the brain having learned through experience, enabling better and more accurate representation of sound in the brain and better access to even soft speech sounds in noisy environments.

Hearing aid users prefer Oticon Intent

Hearing aid users were asked to evaluate the sound quality of Oticon Intent compared to Oticon’s last premium hearing aid in different sound environments. Results show that it not only significantly improves sound quality in different sound environments; it also ensures more nuance and detail in the sound and higher listening comfort for users¹.

Thomas Behrens, Vice President of Audiology & Research, Oticon, comments:

"At Oticon, we believe in personalised solutions for those with hearing loss to engage in conversations and social interactions, despite barriers. Oticon Intent is designed from the ground up to do exactly this. With revolutionary technologies, it supports the brain in a natural way. It offers future-proof connectivity in our smallest design yet within this hearing aid category, allowing users to engage in life and the digital world."

More new features in Oticon Intent:

SMART SPEAKER: Oticon Intent comes with the world’s first self-calibrating speaker to make speaker inaccuracy a thing of the past. The new miniFit Detect delivers gain accuracy within 1dB, providing up to 57% more precise gain compared to previous speaker units by Oticon. What’s more, when connecting the hearing aid to Oticon’s fitting software, Oticon Genie 2, hearing care professionals can see all relevant speaker unit information, from the serial number and fitting power level, to wire length and left/right information. Additionally, they will get an immediate speaker unit status, enabling them to see if a speaker unit is correct, missing, faulty, or incompatible. All this makes it even easier and more efficient for hearing care professionals to fit Oticon Intent.

FUTURE-PROOF CONNECTIVITY: Oticon Intent supports all modern connectivity standards, including the next generation of Bluetooth® audio; LE Audio Bluetooth. Now users can enjoy direct streaming and hands-free communication to not only iOS devices, but also to compatible Android phones and tablets³ and Windows PCs. What’s more, it is a future-proof hearing aid, ready for future communication technologies, such as Auracast™ broadcast audio.⁴

NEW DESIGN & IMPROVED RECHARGEABILITY: Oticon Intent boasts a sleek new design, making it the smallest, most discreet rechargeable miniRITE style Oticon has crafted to date, yet it’s packed with both a telecoil and a large battery. The size 13 lithium-ion battery gives users more power between charges and provides faster and more stable charging. It offers 20 hours of battery life when fully charged, including streaming, while a speedy 15-minute charge delivers users 4 hours of battery life.⁵ The new design also includes touch control for call handling and a single easy-to-use push-button for quick and intuitive hearing aid control.

1. Bianchi/Eskelund et al. (2024). Oticon Intent™ – Clinical evidence. BrainHearing™ benefits of the 4D Sensor technology. Oticon whitepaper.
2. Brændgaard/Zapata-Rodríguez et al. (2024). 4D Sensor technology and Deep Neural Network 2.0 in Oticon Intent™. Technical review and evaluation. Oticon whitepaper.
3. Android™ devices need to have Android 14 and support LE Audio Bluetooth to allow hands-free communication or the Android Protocol for Audio Streaming (ASHA) to allow direct streaming to Oticon Intent. Please visit /compatibility for more information.
4. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the US and other countries. Android™, Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC. Microsoft and Windows are part of the Microsoft group of companies. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. The Auracast™ word mark and logos are trademarks owned by the Bluetooth SIG. Any use of such marks by Demant is under licence. Other trademarks and tradenames are those of their respective owners.
5. Expected use time for rechargeable battery depends on use pattern, active feature set, hearing loss, sound environment, battery age and use of wireless accessories.

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 the Demant Group with more than 20,000 employees and revenues of around DKK 18 billion. Changing technology. Changing conventions. Changing lives. Oticon – Life-changing hearing technology.