Promotion: tech company Olive Union has introduced its latest set of wireless hearing aids and headphones that use AI to automatically optimise the sound settings to suit the user's environment.

Called the Olive Max, the buds have a wraparound design that gives them the appearance and feel of wireless earbuds rather than traditional hearing aids, which can often be outdated and clunky.

Following on from the brand's Olive Pro 2-in-1 wireless hearing aids that were introduced in 2020, the new wraparound design promises to offer louder sound with less noise.

Most notably, the Olive Max earbuds use AI to automatically adjust the hearing settings based on the user's environment, whether they are watching TV at home or sitting in a noisy restaurant with friends.

Six omni-directional dynamic range microphones enable voices and background noises to be identified and filtered accurately without distorting the user's own voice.

"Olive Max is built on top of the success of Olive Pro, with feedback from its 10,000 plus users heavily embedded into the DNA of the new flagship product," said Olive Union. "The most heavily requested feature, adaptive hearing, will debut with the Olive Max, providing wearers with unparalleled hearing in any environment, automatically."

"As Olive Max users wear the earbuds, artificial intelligence will continue to learn and improve the adaptive hearing experience, using advanced machine learning technology to customise sound settings to the specific user's environment."

The buds have eight hours of battery life on a single charge or more than 18 hours with a charging case. They also function just like true wireless earbuds and can be used for listening to music and hands-free calling.

The smart hearing aid startup launched in 2016 with the goal of bringing design-led and affordable hearing products to the market that would help to dismantle the societal stigma associated with hearing aids.

The company's potential customer base includes the 48 million people in the US who suffer from hearing loss. Olive Union reports that of these 48 million, the majority are under 65 years of age and 80 per cent of them aren't currently getting the help they need.

"Most people with hearing loss (from mild to moderately severe) aren't getting the help they need and won't even consider hearing aids, mostly because of the outdated design and societal stigma associated with them," said the brand.

"But a huge portion of that same demographic are wearing true wireless earbuds daily, so putting hearing aid-level help in a TWS earbud form-factor is a natural solution to fighting the boring and stale design of hearing aids and the stigma that goes along with it."

In addition, the brand has introduced an app that has changed the process of identifying a hearing issue, getting the tools needed for addressing it and using technology to maintain those tools.

In the past, consumers with hearing issues would need to go to an audiologist or doctor, but now, using Olive Union's app they can take a hearing test from their phone, order Olive Max earbuds and adjust/calibrate the TWS earbuds/hearing aids on the go without needing to go to the audiologist.

The brand believes that this all-in-one process will save consumers significant amounts of time and money.

Olive Max is available for pre-order and is expected to ship later this year. To learn more about Olive Max, visit the brand's website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Olive Union as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.