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

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

#81

Post by brudgers »

In the US, visual alarms are pretty much standard under all the life safety codes for commercial buildings including apartments.[1] When they are not provided, both ADA and the Fair Housing Act [1] both dictate that owners provide them to accommodate the disability. If there's a problem, the fire marshal is a good person to call. They've typically pulled enough bodies from tragedies to last a lifetime, and this shapes their attitude toward non-compliance.

[1] Life safety codes as distinct from building codes apply to all buildings not just those newly constructed.

[2] Likewise for ADA and the Fair Housing Act. There are also state equivalents of both of these in many states that may be more restrictive.

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

#82

Post by htk »

wunderlust wrote: post #19

It's a good start, but it may serve best to remind us of the limitations of basic technology. Instead of an X detector, what we have is an X detector detector. From a design perspective this is obviously odd. On the other hand, in a sense it's a multi-detector, since in theory it should respond to detectors of many sorts. There are some upsides to that.

You can also see this tool as a sense translator. It is translating hearing to touch, and maybe sight in the future (if the camera flash is also used).

This way we can let the detectors do what they do best, and translate the physical phenomenon used by the signal, if we don't have the physiological capacity necessary to detect it.

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

#83

Post by cdelsolar »

Jemaclus wrote: post #64

I'm confused. iPhones have an alarm clock already, and you can already set it to vibrate. Why do I need this app? (Serious question. I'm hard of hearing, and I do this with my iPhone already.) To answer some other questions I see in the thread, they make alarm clocks and doorbells specifically for deaf people. I personally own an alarm clock that has an attachment that you slip under the mattress. The vibrations from…

Because you didn't read the article :(

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

#84

Post by ef4 »

Aardwolf wrote: post #49

Am I the only one who can't view the website? It is briefly visible for a second, then redirects to a "itmss://" URL and says "The address wasn't understood".

This is one of the terrible things about the iTunes store.

Thankfully there's now a really nice alternative front-end for browsing their content: https://fnd.io/#/iphone-app/845405123-deafalarm-by-alex-reid...

It's actually faster than their own website, built directly against Apple's APIs.

(Not associated with http://fnd.io, I just think it's cool.)

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

#85

Post by cdcarter »

marpalmin wrote: post #59
simias wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe marpalmin was recording and storing big audio files, which might be a privacy issue I assume (if the user forgets the app is running in the background and ends up recording sensitive/private info). On the other hand I assume that you don't need to keep long audio samples to run your alarm-recognition algorithm and just discard the audio almost right away. That's just a wild guess of course, it would just seem r…

I'm not storing audio. Just audio analysis, of course I have a small buffer but that's normal for realtime audio anaylsis. I'm using it to detect footsteps.

Likely that the use case for this app includes it being plugged in/charging.

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

#86

Post by roberthahn »

ahoy wrote: post #6

This is fascinating. What do deaf people normally do in lieu of alarm clocks?

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 enough for my wife to easily sleep through it.

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

#87

Post by [deleted] »

marpalmin wrote: post #59
simias wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe marpalmin was recording and storing big audio files, which might be a privacy issue I assume (if the user forgets the app is running in the background and ends up recording sensitive/private info). On the other hand I assume that you don't need to keep long audio samples to run your alarm-recognition algorithm and just discard the audio almost right away. That's just a wild guess of course, it would just seem r…

I'm not storing audio. Just audio analysis, of course I have a small buffer but that's normal for realtime audio anaylsis. I'm using it to detect footsteps.

[deleted]

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

#88

Post by roberthahn »

alexvr wrote: post #75

Hey everyone, I really appreciate all of the positive feedback. This is quite thrilling as a college student. It's the first thing I've made that people actually understand and consider useful. If any of you download Deafalarm, please let me know how it works for you and what you would like to see improved. I could also use pointers on getting the word out to people in this niche market. Thank you very much, Alex

As someone who's deaf (not Deaf) thank you for making it. Sadly, the vibration the iPhone makes isn't strong enough for me but this is an awesome idea and I hope you succeed with it!

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

#89

Post by alexvr »

roberthahn wrote: post #88
alexvr wrote: post #75

Hey everyone, I really appreciate all of the positive feedback. This is quite thrilling as a college student. It's the first thing I've made that people actually understand and consider useful. If any of you download Deafalarm, please let me know how it works for you and what you would like to see improved. I could also use pointers on getting the word out to people in this niche market. Thank you very much, Alex

As someone who's deaf (not Deaf) thank you for making it. Sadly, the vibration the iPhone makes isn't strong enough for me but this is an awesome idea and I hope you succeed with it!

You're welcome, and thank you for the comment. I noticed this as well; I'm definitely searching a way to make the vibration more noticeable. Someone else suggested abandoning the mobile phone platform altogether to make a more robust product in general. If not me, maybe Nest will do something like this with their smoke detectors. They're already connected to wifi, so it would just take a wifi-enabled vibrator do the same thing, perhaps more reliably. Still, it might be a while before every smoke detector is as smart as a Nest ;)

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

#90

Post by marpalmin »

cdcarter wrote: post #85
marpalmin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not storing audio. Just audio analysis, of course I have a small buffer but that's normal for realtime audio anaylsis. I'm using it to detect footsteps.

Likely that the use case for this app includes it being plugged in/charging.

Well at least is not the idea to use it being plugged. In fact I even added code so that the app leaves background after 1 hr if it did not go to the foreground in between.

I also found other people with the app being rejected for the same reason after asking about it in the apple dev forum.

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