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AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

washington.edu

201–210 of 452 posts

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#201

One thing that the HN crowd should appreciate is just how expensive and shit hearing aids are. go and look the up the price, they are deeply expensive, even for basic "make it louder" type aids. Worse still, because they interfere with your ear, you tend to loose the ability to "steer" your hearing. This means that you can't tune out other conversations/noises or stuff. The one good side effect of facebook spending b…

> they are deeply expensive Like, $50,000. I'm hoping that removing the need for prescription ones, will allow the price to go down significantly. As an older person, I have noticed that my hearing has gotten "louder," over the years. I still hear dB levels fine. The problem is that I hear all the noise. I used to be able to hold conversations in loud environments (like bar/restaurants), being able to hear the other…

They are not anywhere at that price. The ones europeans tend to get go for $1,806 retail I checked.

I've noticed Americans like to bs their medical costs as bad as the system is, you can't compare some newest luxury devices to what an average person is using all around the world.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#202
post #195

If the size could shrink to the size of a small earplug, I'd love to use this as a person who is not hearing-impaired (at least they couldn't diagnose me with it, so now I'm not sure if their diagnostics sucks, or I'm just a normal person and others pretend better that they hear everything well) . In groups and with friends, it's inevitable that you end up in a busy restaurant or a bar, and it always frustrates me th…

This isn't your issue though. A group chooses to talk in an environment where they can barely hear each other. Rather than using a device for it, I'd recommend to perceive the problem as it is and solve it in a conventional way. E.g. by saying "I couldn't hear shit, and you too probably. That's stupid, let's go instead" unless it's hard to do. Generally these places are designed for you to suffer unless you're scream…

It's sort of inevitable in crowded situations. My main objection is when there's also loud music when that really isn't the purpose of the gathering.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#203

If the size could shrink to the size of a small earplug, I'd love to use this as a person who is not hearing-impaired (at least they couldn't diagnose me with it, so now I'm not sure if their diagnostics sucks, or I'm just a normal person and others pretend better that they hear everything well) . In groups and with friends, it's inevitable that you end up in a busy restaurant or a bar, and it always frustrates me th…

People with some hearing loss can't hear consonants but vowels can be heard. I think that's why some people may assume they don't have a hearing problem.

My Mother has had poor hearing for decades. She listened to a radio as a kid she held it next to her ear at a loud volume. Now she often says she "can't stand noise" but it's because she can't hear in loud environments anymore due to hear hearing problems. I've noticed she misses the start of a sentences like if I said "I'm going to get some milk" she heard "got some milk" (as in I just got it). Or she interrupts people because she can't hear the first part of someone starting to speak most people tend to speak low at the start of a sentence.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#204

If the size could shrink to the size of a small earplug, I'd love to use this as a person who is not hearing-impaired (at least they couldn't diagnose me with it, so now I'm not sure if their diagnostics sucks, or I'm just a normal person and others pretend better that they hear everything well) . In groups and with friends, it's inevitable that you end up in a busy restaurant or a bar, and it always frustrates me th…

I could not hear anyone in any crowded situation. At middle age I thought my hearing was leaving. Yet every audiologist I went to said my hearing was fine. So I found the best audiologist in my fairly large metro area, and scheduled a year in advance (the wait list was that long). After a whole day of tests the audiologist comes in and says I have good news and bad news and good bad news. The good news is that my hea…

I don’t go to bars very often anymore but I absolutely detest live music. I go with friends to talk. Not to have loud music prevent a conversation.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked gpt to translate for me the lyrics of a recent popular song containing the word "puta" and it just refused "I'm sorry, I can't help you with that". When I insisted it just ended the conversation.

I asked Claude to help me learn to play a Pixies song on guitar and it would only give generic advice. Even when I asked for just the strumming pattern it refused due to copyright restrictions. I’m pretty sure a human guitar teacher would have not problem with helping me with that.

Questionable at best to consider copyright in this case but not when generating images.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#206
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not hear anyone in any crowded situation. At middle age I thought my hearing was leaving. Yet every audiologist I went to said my hearing was fine. So I found the best audiologist in my fairly large metro area, and scheduled a year in advance (the wait list was that long). After a whole day of tests the audiologist comes in and says I have good news and bad news and good bad news. The good news is that my hea…

I resorted to wearing earplugs for several years when I was going out more. I felt it did very little to reduce my ability to hear conversations, and it made the whole experience overall so much more pleasant.

If the SNR is already low enough that you're having issues discerning speech, lowering the volume won't help.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#208
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I resorted to wearing earplugs for several years when I was going out more. I felt it did very little to reduce my ability to hear conversations, and it made the whole experience overall so much more pleasant.

If the SNR is already low enough that you're having issues discerning speech, lowering the volume won't help.

It won't help you discern speech, but it'll stop your ears ringing.

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are deeply expensive Like, $50,000. I'm hoping that removing the need for prescription ones, will allow the price to go down significantly. As an older person, I have noticed that my hearing has gotten "louder," over the years. I still hear dB levels fine. The problem is that I hear all the noise. I used to be able to hold conversations in loud environments (like bar/restaurants), being able to hear the other…

They are not anywhere at that price. The ones europeans tend to get go for $1,806 retail I checked. I've noticed Americans like to bs their medical costs as bad as the system is, you can't compare some newest luxury devices to what an average person is using all around the world.

In fairness to op, the out of date pricing may not be that out of date.

recent legislation in the US was meant to bring down hearing aid cost and to break the monopoly on devices. It’s seemingly worked so well that TV commercials for individual brands have started to show up for low cost aids (sub-$5k)

Re: AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd by looking at them

#210

If the size could shrink to the size of a small earplug, I'd love to use this as a person who is not hearing-impaired (at least they couldn't diagnose me with it, so now I'm not sure if their diagnostics sucks, or I'm just a normal person and others pretend better that they hear everything well) . In groups and with friends, it's inevitable that you end up in a busy restaurant or a bar, and it always frustrates me th…

I could not hear anyone in any crowded situation. At middle age I thought my hearing was leaving. Yet every audiologist I went to said my hearing was fine. So I found the best audiologist in my fairly large metro area, and scheduled a year in advance (the wait list was that long). After a whole day of tests the audiologist comes in and says I have good news and bad news and good bad news. The good news is that my hea…

> ...restaurant and public space designers have stopped thinking about sound.

Theory: The bars and restaurants want young patrons, so the poor acoustics are a selection mechanism. Only young people can converse there, so older folks stay away. The place gets reputation as “young and hip.”

Whether by conscious design or “natural selection” for establishments, this seems to be the case.

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