HearHere!
Opportunity for Personalized Hearing Assistants – Bell Labs Big Bang Day 2014
An auspicious occasion. Colleagues gathered at the Bell Labs location at the top of Crawford Hill in Holmdel New Jersey to visit together and listen to Dr Robert Wilson talk about his 1964 experiments on the Big Bang that led to a Nobel Prize he shared with Dr Arno Penzias.
Dr Wilson reminded everyone, 'Nobody got a medal for saving money. You have to do the experiment right.'
Colleagues described how lunch time at Bell Labs involved discussions of septic tanks and poison ivy. All the things we find important in life. So many things people have in common. Everyday things.
It was great to reminisce. But it was challenging to hear the discussions with the background noise of the Parkway rumbling behind us. Dr Wilson stood at a distance and position appropriate for the shape of the bull horn.
Far away.
Far, far away!
Our innovations with personalized hearing assistants would have made it easier for Dr Wilson to speak to everyone who was gathered outside on that hill and for him to be heard by everyone. It would have rendered the bull horn extinct.
A SensoSmart goal: to retire the Bull Horn. How? With HearHere! SensoSmart foundation for a Personalized Hearing Assistant.
SensoSmart HearHere! will help people create an ad hoc conference using their own Smartphone or other device. The HearHere! ad hoc conference uses high fidelity web audio servers. The Smartphone connections reduces background noise. The result is to raise the volume of the speaker’s voice. You hear the speaker here.
Since you are listening over your own device, SensoSmart can employ any Personalized Hearing Assistant for you. Perhaps you can select a generic hearing assistant, or a hearing assistant that is adapted to your personal audiogram and adjustable.
Fraunhofer Auditory VoIP Press Information
Any personalized feature can be employed for the listener or for the speaker. Our advisers tell us that some people do not realize they are low talkers. SensoSmart can help the speaker to know if his or her speech is too quiet. SensoSmart team members encourage contributions to the Human Factors.
SensoSmart HearHere! will provide a platform for many important services and features.
And in the SensoSmart Big Picture, HearHere! aims to provide Smart Personalized Features shared through the communications Network. For example, the code book in the communications network will provide a personalized equalizer to meet the need of those with hearing loss. The SensoSmart Big Picture includes building many personalized features in the network that can be used on any target device. These solutions may be used by anyone, anywhere.
The SensoSmart team aims to overcome limitations of expensive hearing aids. World production of hearing aids is only about ten percent of the volume needed. Many people with hearing loss live in developing communities and cannot afford expensive hearing aid solutions. HearHere! can offer a low cost network accessible solution to meet the needs of a larger population of people with hearing loss.
Features of hearing aids do not resolve all issues of hearing loss and circumstances when people wish to listen. Therefore, SensoSmart will create new features and services on a new platform, the HearHere! platform to address some of these issues.
SensoSmart will use network analytics, crowd and cloud sourcing to understand needs and share features with those in need.
Easy to use. Anytime, anywhere.
HearHere!
How cool is that!