Use of Hearing Aids Embedded with Inertial Sensors and Artificial Intelligence to Identify Patients at Risk for Falling.

Objective: To compare fall risk scores of hearing aids embedded with inertial measurement units (IMU-HAs) and powered by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms with scores by trained observers.

Study Design: Prospective, double-blinded, observational study of fall risk scores between trained observers and those of IMU-HAs.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Toward Alleviating the Stigma of Hearing Aids: A Review.

Despite the significant advancements in hearing aid technology, their adoption rates remain low, with stigma continuing to be a major barrier for many. This review aims to assess the origins and current state of hearing aid stigma, as well as explore potential strategies for alleviating it. This review examines the societal perceptions, psychological impacts, and recent technological advancements that can influence hearing aid adoption and reduce stigma.

Improving Speech Understanding and Monitoring Health with Hearing Aids Using Artificial Intelligence and Embedded Sensors.

This article details ways that machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are being integrated in modern hearing aids to improve speech understanding in background noise and provide a gateway to overall health and wellness. Discussion focuses on how Starkey incorporates automatic and user-driven optimization of speech intelligibility with onboard hearing aid signal processing and machine learning algorithms, smartphone-based deep neural network processing, and wireless hearing aid accessories. The article will conclude with a review of health and wellness tracking capabilities that are enabled by embedded sensors and artificial intelligence.

Design of a large aperture tunable refractive Fresnel liquid crystal lens.

A large aperture tunable lens based on liquid crystals, which is considered for near-to-eye applications, is designed, built, and characterized. Large liquid crystal lenses with high quality are limited by very slow switching speeds due to the large optical path difference (OPD) required. To reduce the switching time of the lens, the thickness is controlled through the application of several phase resets, similar to the design of a Fresnel lens.

Nonmechanical zoom lens based on the Pancharatnam phase effect.

We present a nonmechanical zoom lens system based on the Pancharatnam phase effect, which is controlled by the state of circularly polarized light. The device is shown to allow for a compact design for a wide range of zoom ratios. A demonstration system is shown, which has a 4× zoom ratio between its two electrically switchable states.

Analysis of a dual-twist Pancharatnam phase device with ultrahigh-efficiency large-angle optical beam steering.

It has been previously shown that a Pancharatnam phase device with a dual-twist structure can deflect light up to 60° with nearly perfect efficiency. This was beyond the limits previously assumed for these types of devices, which were considered to be optically similar to Raman-Nath gratings. In this paper we first consider the range of parameters that will allow for high efficiency and show the results for a structure that demonstrates 80° deflection.

Thin-film Pancharatnam lens with low f-number and high quality.

We have made an ultra-thin (~2.26 µm) f/2.1 lens based on the Pancharatnam phase effect using the polarization holography alignment technique.

Concept for a transmissive, large angle, light steering device with high efficiency.

A device concept is presented to allow very large angle deflection of light passing through a transmissive device. Deflection of light, switchable between angles larger than ±60  deg, is shown to be possible with efficiencies approaching 100%.

Surface localized polymer aligned liquid crystal lens.

The surface localized polymer alignment (SLPA) method allows complete control of the polar pretilt angle as a function of position in liquid crystal devices. In this work, a liquid crystal (LC) cylindrical lens is fabricated by the SLPA method. The focal length of the LC lens is set by the polymerization conditions, and can be varied by a non-segmented electrode.

Switchable polarization-independent liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot filter.

A new approach to a polarization-independent twisted liquid-crystal (LC) structure, where phase difference between orthogonal eigenmodes is tuned to be an integer multiple of 2pi, is demonstrated with a numerical model. For select wavelengths, polarization-independent operation can be achieved by tuning the twist rate and thickness of the LC cavity. Applications can be found in polarization- independent switches and field sequential wavelength selection devices.