Passport, the new premium hearing instrument from Unitron, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, is now available worldwide, the company says.

Passport’s signature feature, smartFocus, customizes adaptive parameters to deliver personalized sound quality in every situation, says the company. A complement to the device’s intelligent adaptive features and interactive learning capabilities, smartFocus gives wearers real-time control over four adaptive parameters: microphone strategy, speech enhancement, noise reduction, and overall gain, says the company. Discreet adjustments can be made with a single control located directly on the hearing instrument or on the Smart Control remote.

Passport remembers wearers’ setting preferences based on their smartFocus and volume control adjustments in various situations, and intelligently applies these changes in the automatic program when encountering similar listening environments, according to thecompany. Learning is further accelerated through the learnNow button on the Smart Control, which allows wearers to instantly capture their specific adjustments to the automatic program, says Unitron.

The purpose-driven feature set also includes wireless connectivity and programming through the Unifi Wireless System, which provides straightforward access to wireless features and technology, says the company.

In the preliminary findings of a third-party study comparing wearer response to hearing instruments offering user control versus fully automatic hearing instruments, Passport’s smartFocus feature clearly responds to wearer desire for added control in challenging listening situations, according to the company.

In the subjective analysis, study participants were asked to compare their hearing experience with a fully automatic Passport hearing instrument, whose adaptive features had been established in clinical fittings, versus Passport with smartFocus and learning capabilities enabled. The study’s preliminary findings show that the vast majority of participants said the smartFocus feature improved their listening experience in terms of clarity and comfort, according to the company.

Passport was introduced in select markets in May.

Unitron, a member of the Sonova Group, operates 16 international offices and services distributors in a 53 additional countries.

[Source: Unitron]