New Zealand will become one of the first countries in the world to test out Apple’s latest innovation in health.
The company will launch a new clinical-grade hearing test users can take at home and transform its new AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.
“There are more than a billion people around the world with mild to moderate hearing loss,” said Apple’s Vice President of Health, Dr. Sumbul Desai.
“There’s a lot we can do to improve their well-being and quality of life, and that’s why this was so important to us.”
The technology works to amplify sound and boost certain frequencies.
“There’s the passive part, which is, you’re putting the ear tip into your ear, so that cuts down some ambient noise. And then the active part, where we have an external microphone that’s measuring the ambient sounds and then playing, we call anti noise to basically cancel that out,” said Ternus.
“Once you have the ability to kind of attenuate those sounds coming from the environment, well we could actually amplify them as well, and that’s what you need for a hearing aid.”
According to the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), more than 230,000 New Zealanders aged 65+ experience hearing loss, with around 57% not using hearing aids.
Cost and social stigma are often barriers to accessibility.
With AirPods Pro priced at NZ$479, alongside an iPhone, the total cost is competitive with entry-level hearing aids, which can run up to NZ$12,000 for high-end models.
Apple’s Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, said the company was focused on providing accessibility.
“These core technologies enabling hearing health features are the same that make AirPods Pro an outstanding audio experience,” Ternus said.
“We’re hoping this opens up hearing care for a lot of people who previously found it inaccessible due to cost or complexity.”
Deaf Aotearoa’s CEO Lachlan Keating said the development was “a step in the right direction” but should seen as an addition to existing services such as sign language.
Keating said he was keen on working with Apple and other big companies to ensure there was dedicated deaf community and NZSL knowledge incorporated into their thinking.
“While this innovation will support those who currently use hearing aids or have a cochlear implant, we need to ensure that it truly offers value for the community over time,” Keating said.
“Technologies, AI, avatars and so forth, are growing at an increasing fast rate of knots, we’re seeing a lot of energy and a lot of resource go towards these solutions, and it’s great to see global organisations such as Apple and others proposing these solutions and developing these solutions.”
The launch comes amid criticism big tech companies haven’t done enough to share their developments, with us lawmakers accusing them of locking each outer out.
But Apple denied the claims and said it wanted to democratise access.
“We’re kind of stepping into a whole new realm with hearing health and leveraging these same technologies to do something that we think is going to be really profound, and how it can help people,” said Ternus.
The update is due to hit New Zealand’s iPhones next week.
