Oticon Opn, the next generation of hearing aids, does a lot more than just helping deaf or hard of hearing people hear. Besides fitting discretely behind a person’s ears, Oticon Opn also makes hearing multiple speakers in noisy environments, and improves their ability to understand speech in challenging environments by up to 30%. The Opn scans the environment more than 100 times per second to differentiate between noise and sound, and to help their brain comprehend sound with minimal effort.

But that is not all. In the age of Internet of Things (IoT), Oticon Opn also lets a user connect to the internet through IFTTT, and control smart devices around their house. For example, on waking up in the morning, as soon as a person turns on their Oticon Opn, the lights around the house will light up, and the coffee machine will start brewing coffee. When the doorbell rings, a personal notification would be heard in the Opn by the person wearing them. When the Oticon Opn is low on battery, a text message could be sent to the person or their caregiver/parent indicating that batteries need to be replaced – all through IFTTT.

Oticon Opn can also be used as earphones while talking on the phone or while streaming music/audio from the phone or tv. By connecting it to a device like Amazon Echo, it can also be used to turn on the TV, dim the lights in the room, and set the Oticon Opn to a specific listening mode (“P1”, “P2”, “P3”). A sample Oticon IFTTT guide can be found here.

The Oticon website doesn’t list Opn’s price but one website has them for $3,798.

Website: Oticon