The 7th international developers forum for hearing aids and cochlear implants united experts from all over the world in Oldenburg.

<Oldenburg, 4^th June 2015> For the seventh time, the Hörtech Centre of Competence for Hearing Aid Systems Technology – together with the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all - invited the elite of international hearing aid developers to Oldenburg. On 3^rd June and 4^th June 2015, engineers from renowned companies and top-class hearing scientists from all over the world discussed together with scientists from Oldenburg about prevailing challenges and trends of the trade and developed approaches which will be further promoted in pre-competitive consortia in the future.

Prominent highlights of the meeting included plenary talks about wireless systems in the hearing aid and cochlear technology, recent developments in the usability of smart phones as hearing aids, and the necessity to test the suitability of hearing aid innovations for daily use with test subjects. The internationally renowned inventor of the Bluetooth wireless technology, Jaap Haartsen from Enschede (Netherlands) talked about new wireless connection standards between Bluetooth devices (such as smartphones) and hearing aids. The capabilities of acoustically transparent hearing aids – hearing aids which can reproduce the sound exactly the same way as it would be perceived in the ear canal without hearing aids - were also discussed. The scientific and technological obstacles needed to be overcome in order to have a cognitively controlled hearing aid ready for the marked were the topic of another plenary talk.

“We are working at a great pace on the development of a mind-controlled hearing aid in the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all. To discuss and advance such ground-breaking concepts, which represent the hearing aid provision of the future, with international hearing research experts is a particular highlight for us in Oldenburg”, rejoices Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier, physicist and physician at the University of Oldenburg and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence.

“The Hearing Aid Developers Forum offers the ideal platform for leading hearing scientists to chat with developers from the most important international hearing aid and hearing technology companies. Especially the intensive discussions in small groups lead consistently to approaches on how to transform concepts from basic research into innovations for the market”, emphasizes Sepp Chalupper from Advanced Bionics GmbH the importance of the meeting for the industry.

Hearing for all – this aim has a great social significance since 18 percent of the German society – and over 50 percent of the over 65 year old citizens – have a hearing loss which requires treatment. Through an improvement of the individual hearing diagnostics and a suitably fitted personal hearing aid the researchers and engineers can drastically improve the communication of the people concerned - be it at work, in traffic or at home.