DENMARK (CNN) -- In Denmark, inventors have figured out how to use 3D technology to make hearing aids specifically tailored for each patient.
The process is called CAMISHA, or as CAMISHA inventor Soren Westermann explains, "Which means Computer-Aided-Manufacturing-for-Individual-Shells-for-Hearing-Aids."
Widex's bulky first model, in1956, came with its own battery chest pack. Hearing aids have been shrinking ever since. Digital technology has made the machines almost vanish into the ear
Today, the CAMISHA process is used throughout the hearing industry for 95 percent of all custom hearing aids, and over its lifetime, the patent has been worth more than 10 million Euros to Widex.
But how exactly does it work? First a mold is made of your ear canal. Next it goes into a laser scanner. Then you have the data needed for 3D printing.
The printers are white anonymous boxes. But peer in and watch what emerges from the pool of acrylic resin. A laser gradually builds up the shapes layer by layer. Until they rise in a cluster, like polyps on a coral reef. Every shell in this batch of 30 or so is different; a precise sculpture of someone's inner ear. Into which microcircuitry is inserted.
Chamisha is now used industry-wide.
Background noise is absolutely a problem for all of us, but especially for hearing aid users. But with this hearing aid and a remote, you can control my entire soundscape at home.
Pump up the volume and I can tune directly into the television and the television alone. The sound and nothing else comes directly into my earpiece.
It's the same with the stereo. The music comes directly into my ear, nothing else.
More and more of us are going to suffer hearing loss. We're living longer, we tend to listen to music more often and more loudly; it's just as well that hearing aid technology is advancing so dramatically.