Imagine trying to have a conversation with the person across from you in a crowded meeting or a noisy bar. Focusing on what the other person is saying is difficult enough for hearing people, let alone those with hearing loss. Assistive technology company OrCam is showing up at CES 2024 with a range of new products, including a set of devices and an iPhone app designed to help people with hearing loss cope with auditory overload. The platform is called OrCam Hear, and I was pleasantly surprised after trying it out quickly at the Las Vegas show.
The OrCam Hear consists of a pair of earbuds and an adapter that plugs into any phone, and you’ll use the app to control who you want to listen to. The system listens to the sound (via the adapter) for a few seconds and uses artificial intelligence to build speaker profiles for each one, which then allows you to “selectively isolate specific sounds even in noisy environments.” This addresses what is sometimes called the “cocktail party problem,” which is a challenge for hearing aids.
During the demo, my editor, Terrence O’Brien, and I spoke with two people whose voice profiles were set up in the app. We stood around a table, Terrence to my right, and the two company spokespeople across from us about five feet away. I put the earplugs in (after disinfection) and the surrounding noise immediately sounded quieter and much muffled.
I looked at everyone around me and although I could see their lips moving, I couldn’t hear anyone speaking. After an OrCam representative used the app to drag a floating circle into the ring around me, I started hearing people talking diagonally across from me. Although the senior manager next to me was also talking, I could still only hear the voice of the selected person. It was only when we moved the other speaker’s icon into the ring that I began to hear their voices.
What impressed me more, though, was how the system handled a relatively new player like Terrence. He didn’t have a profile set up in the app and I couldn’t hear him at all initially. However, a few seconds into the demo, a new circle with a gray icon appeared, indicating that a new “anonymous” person had been identified. As we were dragging it into the ring, all of a sudden I heard Terrence’s voice. Even more impressive is the fact that Terrence wears a rather thick mask, which makes him difficult to understand anyway. However, I could still clearly understand what he was saying.
Of course, OrCam Hear isn’t perfect. I was still able to hear speech coming from the speakers, and the audio playing through the earbuds was slightly delayed, so there was a small echo. But the product is designed for people with hearing loss, who are less likely to experience the condition. There was also some audio distortion when the selected speaker spoke, but nothing severe enough to impede my understanding.
OrCam says the Hear platform is “currently in technology preview and expected to ship later this year.” Hopefully, this will give the company time to iron out some kinks and make the app available on both iOS and Android so that assistive technology can be truly inclusive and accessible to more people.
We will provide live coverage of CES 2024, which will be held in Las Vegas from January 6th to 12th.Get all the latest news from the show here.
This article was originally published on Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/orcam-hear-hands-on-a-surprisingly-effective-voice-isolation-platform-for-those-with-hearing-loss-230243953.html ? src=rss
Source link
