Show HN: Deaf? My iPhone app wakes you up if it hears an alarm • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Deaf? My iPhone app wakes you up if it hears an alarm

#141

Post by roberthahn » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 11:23 AM UTC

burntwater wrote: post #126

sizzle wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never heard of this product, can you link me please? It's what I've always wanted

There are a number of such products, the most popular are probably from Sonic Alert - http://www.sonicalert.com/Alarm-Clocks-s/1819.htm I recently discovered Bellman & Symfon, a Swedish company that has some very attractive (naturally) products. Their vibratating/flashing alarm clocks integrate with wireless smoke detectors. I can easily get a stand-alone strobed smoke detector in just my bedroom, but that doesn't he…

Thanks for replying, burntwater!

Re: Show HN: Deaf? My iPhone app wakes you up if it hears an alarm

#142

Post by roberthahn » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 1:17 PM UTC

sizzle wrote: post #114

roberthahn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a vibrating alarm clock. It's a regular alarm with a wire going to a bed shaker (a 3/4" high disk with a vibrating mechanism inside - much like the ones in game controllers). The shaker is located between the mattress and box spring under my head. Sometimes it startles me awake, which is an unpleasant feeling, but it works for me all the time. And, given that we have a foam mattress, the buzzing is absorbed eno…

Never heard of this product, can you link me please? It's what I've always wanted

This is the one that I have: http://www.headsetexperts.com/clarity_601_p/601.htm

I've had mine for years; I'm surprised they're still making it - I've gotten used to the 'cult of the new' lifestyle that seems so prevalent. :)

Re: Show HN: Deaf? My iPhone app wakes you up if it hears an alarm

#143

Post by sdrothrock » Thu, Apr 03, 2014, 1:31 AM UTC

Houshalter wrote: post #138

sdrothrock wrote: post #122

As a hearing-impaired user, I'd actually love something like this if I could "train" it to specific sounds, like my doorbell. Since my phone is almost always in my pocket or hand at home, it would be very easy to feel the vibration and I'd know someone rang the doorbell.

That's a cool idea. I'm not sure how reliable machine learning on audio would be with only a few samples though.

I'm not sure either, but I want to say that since the sound will be at a given frequency in a given pattern, you could probably pick it out relatively reliably...

Also, unlike fire alarms, I think I'd be less worried about false positives or the thing not working -- it would be an annoyance, not something that could potentially endanger my life.

Re: Show HN: Deaf? My iPhone app wakes you up if it hears an alarm

#144

Post by Houshalter » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 1:40 AM UTC

sdrothrock wrote: post #143

Houshalter wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a cool idea. I'm not sure how reliable machine learning on audio would be with only a few samples though.

I'm not sure either, but I want to say that since the sound will be at a given frequency in a given pattern, you could probably pick it out relatively reliably... Also, unlike fire alarms, I think I'd be less worried about false positives or the thing not working -- it would be an annoyance, not something that could potentially endanger my life.

Unsupervised learning to extract high level features might work. Then get examples of the kinds of sounds people are training it on and use that to extract even better features.