AI headphones let you listen to one person in a crowd by one glance (opens in new tab)

(newswise.com)

3 pointssmb1111y ago4 comments

4 comments

I just went to get my hearing checked for the first time, and it's fine, the doctor said my responses are great for someone my age.

But in a noisy environment - not even that noisy, just kind of any noise at all - I'm functionally deaf. My child was telling me something while rubbing two balloons together and I had to get her to put them down before I could parse what she was saying.

I know there's obvious privacy issues with this thing, but man, it would be great to be able to pop in a pair of earbuds and be able to hold a conversation with someone while cars are driving nearby.

Ukv1y ago

I'm similar - I feel as though how quiet or high-pitched someone can physically hear must be a largely separate matter from how well their brain can separate out and process speech.

If all the processing is on-board, I don't think there'd be privacy issues beyond noise-cancelling headphones.

phendrenad21y ago

The non-AI version is better: Using multiple microphones, you can use time-of-flight to isolate multiple voices in a crowd, and separate them into distinct, clear audio tracks.

Ukv1y ago

This does make use of multiple microphones and timing between sound waves arriving. To my understanding, the machine learning part allows it to work even as the speaker/wearer move relative to each other, such as if you turn your head.

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4 comments

pavel_lishin1y ago

I just went to get my hearing checked for the first time, and it's fine, the doctor said my responses are great for someone my age.

Ukv1y ago

I'm similar - I feel as though how quiet or high-pitched someone can physically hear must be a largely separate matter from how well their brain can separate out and process speech.

If all the processing is on-board, I don't think there'd be privacy issues beyond noise-cancelling headphones.

phendrenad21y ago

The non-AI version is better: Using multiple microphones, you can use time-of-flight to isolate multiple voices in a crowd, and separate them into distinct, clear audio tracks.

Ukv1y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse