Which speaker are you listening to? Hearing aid of the future listens to brainwaves to find out

In a noisy room with many speakers, hearing aids can suppress background noise, but they have difficulties isolating one voice - that of the person you're talking to at a party, for instance. KU Leuven researchers have now addressed that issue with a technique that uses brainwaves to determine within one second whom you're listening to. Having a casual conversation at a cocktail party is a challenge for someone with a hearing aid, says Professor Tom Francart from the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven: "A hearing aid may select the loudest speaker in the room, for instance, but that is not necessarily the person you're listening to. Alternatively, the system may take into account your viewing direction, but when you're driving a car, you can't look at the passenger sitting next to you." Researchers have been working on solutions that take into account what the listener wants. "An electroencephalogram (EEG) can measure brainwaves that develop in response to sounds. This technique allows us to determine which speaker someone wants to listen to. The system separates the sound signals produced by different speakers and links them to the brainwaves.