BOLD | A New World of Digital Hearing
Bachelor thesis at KH Berlin Weißensee [2019]
Every fifth person in Germany lives with a hearing impairment. Two out of three sufferers are so ashamed of it that they do not even consider a hearing aid. 27% of all hearing aids are not worn because their use comes so late that people do not become familiar with them. This is all the worse because an unworn hearing aid promotes dementia, among other things, and can lead to social isolation.
That is why I have made it my mission to make hearing aids aesthetic, attractive and proudly worn. Because when hearing aids reach these standards, they are actually worn. This can significantly shorten the time between the detection of hearing damage and the willingness to wear a hearing aid (currently about eight years).
It is even easier to wear a hearing aid when it is no longer called a hearing aid and, above all, is not just a hearing aid. The solution is BOLD, a new device with many innovative functions related to the sense of hearing, including hearing improvement. This device is therefore attractive for many user and age groups.
With its noticeable design and placement in front of the ear, BOLD becomes a consciously worn wearable that is no longer hidden, but even actively communicates to the environment through light signals what kind of input the user is receiving.
In this way, hearing aids that were once experienced as unpleasant can in future become digital high-tech devices that enjoy great popularity. Hearing-impaired people can once again integrate more fully into society and their social environment, which makes it easier for them, as well as for their fellow human beings, to interact with each other.
Concept
Digital Hearing
Digital hearing describes the digital and intelligent support, expansion and improvement of our sense of hearing. It does not matter whether the user suffers from a hearing disability or not. As can already be seen today in the example of smart earphones, the desire to use digital
digital way to make greater use of the sense of hearing.
But what if my digital hearing aid were able to make me see like a bat with an all-round view through the night? Or what if I could use it to specifically block out or amplify ambient noise or even voices? The concept of digital hearing is a futuristic adaptation of a hearing aid. It includes a variety of technologies that, in combination, create a completely new perception of our surroundings.
Concept
Canceling Functions
When fading out or amplifying different sounds, voices or frequencies, pleasant and smooth transitions in volume are particularly important. By intelligently recognising the situation, BOLD enables a soft and dynamic sound curve.
Geo
canceling
The everyday life of many people is characterised by routine processes and so regularly recurring places where the same noises are often disturbing. If you come to your desk in an open-plan office, for example, it can be assumed that you primarily want to block out the background noise. At the same time, it is desirable to be able to understand people in the close surrounding.
With precise GPS measurement, certain fields can be marked out and assigned presettings. For example, you could specify that outside a three-metre radius from the desk
from the desk, everything is blanked out. This results in an individually adapted auditory room separation.
Voice
canceling
Conversations are part of everyday life. Whether as an outsider, in passing, or as an active participant in a conversation. As an uninvolved person, we often fail to tune out these conversations. It is most difficult for our brain to overhear telephone conversations, as we subconsciously try to reconstruct the unheard half of the conversation. With VoiceCancelling, it is possible to selectively turn individual voices quieter and louder.
Dynamic
noise cancelling
It is almost impossible for current hearing aids to calculate what you are focusing on and amplify this or reduce the surrounding noise. Dynamic NoiseCancelling, supported by a conversation analysis algorithm, combined with gesture recognition, can detect exactly who you are talking to. For example, you start a conversation at a normal ambient volume. Due to the regularly changing speaker, the content of the conversation and the physical orientation to each other, the general background noise is gradually faded out more and more.
If something unpredictable happens, for example a pencil falls from the next table, there is a loud noise followed by a turn of the head (interruption of the concentration thread). Within a very short time, the normal volume is reached again and, after checking the noise, the focus returns to the conversation and the surroundings are successively faded out.
User journey
A day with digital hearing
2019
2025
2035
Waking up with a vibrating/light alarm clock. Without a hearing aid in the direction of the bathroom, body care and shower, since there are almost no waterproof hearing aids.
problems:
-
Water, sweat, as well as personal care products, such as For example, creams are absolutely harmful to hearing aids.
Waking up with a vibrating/light alarm clock. Putting on the hearing aids starts the day in a clear, auditory environment.
hearing aid:
-
The hearing aid no longer starts with the basic onposition, but adapts to the respective environment right from the start.
Waking up with a vibration/light alarm clock charging cradle. Illuminated hearing aids are easier to find, recognize and use. Light therapy starts automatically.
hearing aid:
-
Light is shone into the ear canal. This light-sensitive receptors in the brain are stimulated, which positively stimulate the mind and mood.
2019
2025
2035
The battery-powered hearing aid is removed from where it was stored overnight, turned on, and then inserted. A battery-powered device is removed from the charging station.
problems:
-
Left and right must not be interchanged.
-
You have to know where the device was the night before was filed.
A waterproof hearing aid allows music/phone calls/entertainment in the shower.
hearing aid:
-
Without a connection to the smartphone can through
gesture control to navigate between saved settings in the entertainment feature. -
How to switch features when the water interrupt the gesture control?
A waterproof hearing aid allows music/phone calls/entertainment in the shower. The light therapy unobtrusively accompanies the user until breakfast.
hearing aid:
-
Without a connection to the smartphone through gesture control to navigate between saved settings in the entertainment feature.
2019
2025
2035
Even during breakfast, many everyday noises mix with the voice of the person you are talking to.
problems:
-
Eating with a hearing aid doesn't work always. For example, crispbread and other crunchy foods are problematic for many users.
Thanks to good, automatic filtering, you mostly only hear the voice of the person you are talking to while having breakfast.
hearing aid:
-
Through gesture recognition and eye gaze, the device recognizes the person opposite and amplifies their voice.
A conversation begins at breakfast.
Using AI-controlled speech analysis software, the device dynamically filters out only the conversation on which the user is concentrating.
hearing aid:
-
The software recognizes how focused you are on a conversation by looking in the right direction, gestures, but above all by analyzing the speech more precisely, and gradually fades out the surrounding noises and lets them blur dullly.
-
A hasty change of gaze, for example, is interrupted and the surrounding noisecan be heard clearly again.
2019
2025
2035
When leaving the house is a manual
Program change on the hearing aid necessary. Bike ride to work in the dark.
problems:
-
Spontaneously changing/adjusting the volume on the device while cycling is difficult.
Automatic program change of the hearing aid when leaving the house. Bike ride to work in the dark.
hearing aid:
-
In critical situations, the device warns of und redirects in case of traffic problems.
-
At what point does it make sense to intervene?
-
How to use the hearing aid on the bike
most secure/reliable? -
Is a connection to the smartphone still necessary?
Bike ride to work in the dark. With digital click sonar, static as well as dynamic obstacles on the way can be detected and avoided at an early stage.
hearing aid:
-
The area is scanned with ultrasound. This is translated into a learnable language, which the brain then translates in three dimensions. This also allows the user to recognize the environment with their ears.
2019
2025
2035
In the office, voices and everyday noises roll over one another. Again, the program is changed manually in order to filter the unnecessary tones from the background noise as well as possible.
problems:
-
Despite better and better filters, the hearing aid cannot always successfully recognize whose voice or which noise is currently important for the user.
In the office, voices and everyday noises roll over one another. For the most part, however, this is not a problem.
hearing aid:
By specifically recognizing the gestures and focusing on the person you are talking to, an artificially subjective listening experience can be created.
In the office, voices and everyday noises roll over one another. A quiet working atmosphere is created through voice and geocancelling.
hearing aid:
-
Voicecancelling: By precisely recognizing individualvoices, these can be specifically made quieter or louder.
-
Geocanceling: Outside of a certain field (e.g. desk radius 3m), the ambient noises and voices are specifically canceled. Within this area you can talk undisturbed. When you leave the area, the ambient noise returns to normal volume.
2019
2025
2035
Incoming call is displayed on the smartphone and can (if Bluetooth function is available) be transferred to the hearing aid, which then acts like a headset.
Problem:
-
If no radio frequency or bluetooth function available, which is often not possible due to lack of space, with BTE devices the phone must be held over the ear and to speak in front of your mouth, like a walkie-talkie.
An incoming call is answered directly on the ear via gesture control.
hearing aid:
-
The calls can be repeated as well
savedbe cherted. -
What would such a call archive look like und would you navigate through it?
An incoming call is accepted directly on the ear via gesture control. The user's gestures are also transmitted via click sonar.
hearing aid:
-
The calls can be repeated as well as saved.
-
Gesture transmission is used for further Verunderstanding and can only be heard and seen by the user and is therefore much easier and more private to use than, for example, a video call.
2019
2025
2035
Meeting with language barrier takes place. English is spoken for communication.
Problem:
-
In this case, the accuracy of the content suffers, as well as the fluency of everyone's language, since they do not communicate in their mother tongue.
Meeting with language barrier takes place.
hearing aid:
-
A live translation function translates with
Computer voice almost simultaneously. -
With how many languages and people could this work simultaneously and how could you switch between the people?
Meeting with language barrier takes place. This, however, is almost no longer noticeable.
hearing aid:
-
The device suggests translating the conversation into the user's native language, and consent is given via gesture control.
-
The software analyzes and recognizes the tone of voice and speed of the conversation partner. The translated content is accurately reproduced in the original voice and mood.
2019
2025
2035
Because of a flat tire on the bike, a sharing car is arranged. The nearest vehicle is localized and booked. Bluetooth connection allows synchronization with smartphone. Music is transferred to the hearing aid and played as desired for the journey.
problems:
-
There are currently almost no hearing aids that are fullyable to play music. The lower bass frequencies are usually missing. This leaves the music sound "metallic", like from an old radio.
Because of a flat tire, it is not possible to ride home by bike.
hearing aid:
-
The hearing aid recognizes the mood of the user voice, asks about problems and then suggests solutions.
-
It tells him where the nearest bicycle repair shop is or where the nearest ridesharing car is.
Because of a flat tire, it is not possible to ride home by bike. The desire for fresh air makes the user walk half the way home until an autonomous shuttle picks them up at the selected location and drives the rest of the way home.
hearing aid:
-
With click sonar projection, the fastest/most practical route is displayed.
2019
2025
2035
After 12 hours of wear, the hearing aids are the first thing to be removed upon arrival home.
problems:
-
If you don't store the devices properly,they can easily be relocated.
-
If it is a battery device, it could it happen that it cannot be charged overnight and dies out during the next day.
When we get home, a conversation from lunch reappears in our minds.
hearing aid:
-
By permanently recording the environment it is possible to repeat or even save sequences of the day without any problems.
-
What would such an archive look like and withwhat kind of operation would it be best to use?
When he gets home, the user thinks back to a conversation from two days ago without knowing exactly when it was. He wants to listen to them again.
hearing aid:
-
Since he still remembers where he ran, once he's entertained, he searches for conversations in that place and easily finds his way back to the conversation to listen to again.
2019
2025
2035
Dinner is followed by relaxation and reading.
Problem:
-
In a busy household in a “busy area” with, for example, a noisy neighborhood, it can be difficult to settle down. A lot of hearing damage only affects the highs/mids, so the booming bass of the neighbor can still be heard in the same way.
After dinner, one can relax in a variety of ways.
hearing aid:
-
The device creates balanced voice and Noise-cancelling a quiet but not completely isolated environment.
-
Independently of each other, voices and
other ambient noises can be adjusted in terms of volume. -
In an emergency, voices get through to the user when spoken to directly.
After dinner, one can relax in a variety of ways.
hearing aid:
-
The device creates a quiet but not completely isolated environment through balanced voice and noise cancellation.
-
In an emergency, voices get through to the user when spoken to directly.
-
Since it is foreseeable when he will go to bed, will the remaining battery is used for light therapy before going to sleep.
2019
2025
2035
At the end of the day at the latest, the devices are taken out of the ears and switched off.
Problem:
-
Shutdown of battery devices happens by slightly opening the battery flaps. Elderly people in particular often lack fine motor skills and it is not uncommon for the batteries to fall out.
At the end of the day, the devices are taken out of the ears and placed in the induction charging bowl to charge the battery.
hearing aid:
-
The device recognizes by time and body positionon that the user goes to bed and reminds him to put both parts in the induction charging bowl
At the end of the day, the light therapy is ended, the devices are removed from the ears and placed in the induction charging bowl to charge the battery.
hearing aid:
-
The device recognizes by time and body positionbefore the user is going to sleep, asks for the wake-up time and reminds them to place the two-part device in the induction charging bowl.
Light concept
Communication to the outside
What every smart-earphone currently misses is transparency between outsiders and the user. "Button in ear" usually means offline, busy elsewhere, distant. With a permanently worn product like BOLD, it is therefore even more important to let the outside world know which mode of responsiveness you are in. Acceptance in society for such a device can only be created if the status of the user is visible and outsiders do not feel excluded.
Click sonar
When digital click sonar is used to scan the environment, this is also interesting for outsiders to know. For example, car drivers can better assess whether cyclists have seen them if it is communicated that they are scanning their surroundings with sonar.
Music and headset
When the user listens to music, the light stripes emit according to the beat and frequency. This is enough to identify from the outside what kind of input it is.
The stripes flare out depending on the volume of the respective frequency range. Starting from the edge, the area firing to the left is a proportional reflection of the one to the right. In this way, the light signals can be fully recognised from the frontal view as well as from the side.
Noise cancelling
If the user is completely cut off from the cancelling function, a reddish glow appears at the edge of the device. If an outsider speaks to the user, their speech is reflected in the light in the form of frequency pulses. The device registers the speech of the outsider, but does not pass it on. In an emergency, the barrier can only be broken through when the full name of the wearer is spoken. In this case, the reddish glow is faded out downwards.
At this stage, the user is fully responsive again.
Résumé
BOLD
With my work, I hope to lay the foundation for making hearing aids aesthetic, beautiful and proudly worn products. It is very harmful to health if not wearing a hearing aid in case of hearing loss. The time between the detection of a hearing loss and the first wearing of a hearing aid must be drastically reduced. BOLD can make hearing aids a topic of general social interest and thus reduce stigmatisation and prejudice.