Sound is everywhere - it’s a reliable constant in our ever-changing lives. Sound can bring us joy, such as when we hear music or laughter. Sound can be part of the ambiance of a location: coffee machines, traffic noise, rain falling, chairs shuffling. Sometimes it is just noise. Either way, sound can be a problem when we’re trying to carry on a conversation. In that case, it gets in the way of hearing speech and prevents us from fully communicating and connecting.
Singular Hearing and HeardThat are here to solve these communication problems and help everyone join in the conversation.
To get a better idea of how HeardThat works, have a look at these demonstration videos:
The problem
Background noise of any kind can make it difficult to hear speech clearly. For many, it can make conversations impossible.
Most traditional hearing- assistive products are either amplifiers that make all sounds louder, including the noise, or noise-cancellation products that end up reducing all sounds, including speech.
Wearable devices are unable to provide the necessary resources to genuinely distinguish between speech and noise. They lack the necessary memory, battery life, and processing power.
Technology that invites us back into noisy environments we found challenging or avoided altogether.
Technology that can separate speech from noise and deliver crystal clear conversations.
Technology that is powerful, but can be used widely without extra devices or equipment.
The solution
Using HeardThat is as simple as a few taps on your smartphone screen. Simply open the HeardThat app, lay your phone on the table, and listen as the speech is denoised and clarified. (Note: all processing is done on the phone and no audio data is sent to the cloud.)
The technology behind HeardThat, however, is a bit more complex. Rather than the traditional technique of trying to model sound, HeardThat takes a different approach: machine learning.
What is machine learning?
Machine learning is an advanced technology that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to help computers learn from experience to interpret data, rather than direct programming.
To create HeardThat, years of research resulted in neural networks that were trained with thousands of hours of recorded speech to learn what is useful speech and what is just noise. HeardThat doesn’t suppress noise, it separates it from the speech and discards it, leaving just speech with enhanced intelligibility.
HeardThat is different
Communicating in a noisy situation is a challenge for many people. The HeardThat team knew that to solve this long-standing problem, they had to break the mold and go in a new direction.
HeardThat is speech-specific
Hearing devices are helpful in many situations, but they can amplify all sound, including noise. This doesn’t solve the “cocktail party problem.” Instead, HeardThat uses unique technology to enhance speech specifically and leave out the rest.
HeardThat lets you use the devices you already own
Rather than create an entirely new device, the HeardThat app makes the hearing devices you already own work better, simply by using the smartphone you already own.
HeardThat has power
Small devices simply do not have the processing power, memory, or battery life to provide a viable solution to these real-world social situations. Thankfully, your smartphone does. By connecting your earphones or hearing aids to your smartphone and HeardThat app, you have the power to hear more clearly in the presence of noise than you ever could before.
You haven’t heard this before
Enhancing speech in noise has never been simpler. Hear the difference with HeardThat today.