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

washington.edu

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

#351

Post by follower »

genewitch wrote: post #177
keploy wrote: post #41

Imagine it helping people with Autism and ADHD! ADHD people have hard time listening to 1 person because part of the brain tries to listen to all other conversations going around.

I have high octane AD[H]D and as my hearing "goes" so does my ability to listen to people with noise around. For at least 12 years i've had to warn my wife and children if they're not facing me when they talk i can't hear them - but i was recently let in on the fact that other people consider them mumblers, so. I have a heard time hearing most people on the phone, especially call centers. Prior to what i would descri…

> suppose i don't think ADHD has anything to do with my hearing loss or issue;

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that as a potential factor, auditory processing issues are known to something that can be connected to ADHD in some people. (Also mentioned by a few other people in the comments.)

Couple of links that go into more details:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_auditory_attention

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect

> Additionally, i cannot watch any tv or film produced after about 2000 or so without subtitles, regardless of how fancy the "5.1 surround" center channel DSP is.

IMO that's potentially more because audio engineers for home movie releases are... ok, well, let's just say, "have different opinions on how to mix audio with dialogue than me". :) It's a very common compliant.

> I should have worn hearing protection more when i was younger

Shouldn't we all? :) Still worth trying to protect what you have now--I've used the "Etymotic" brand ear plugs mentioned elsewhere in the comments which are intended to more evenly reduce sound levels without just "muffling" everything.

> but when i can't hear music i enjoy i'll be pretty sad about that.

Indeed. Understandably.

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

#352

Post by londons_explore »

floatrock wrote: post #232
superultra wrote: post #185

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…

> restaurant and public space designers have stopped thinking about sound. Most bars opened in the last 15 years have cement floors, very little sound insulation, and they’re based on the idea that you’re not having a good time unless your ears are ringing. Recently listened to a really good podcast about this phenomenon https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gastropod/id918896288?... (or pick your favorite podcast ap…

> restaurants can have good sound design, but it doesn't come cheap.

Carpet the ceiling and the walls. Super cheap, super effective.

Ideally carpet the floor too - and if you use carpet tiles then when a customer spills something uncleanable on a tile it's a 5 minute non-expert job to pull up a tile and put in a new one.

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

#353

Post by simmons »

treflop wrote: post #294
superultra wrote: post #185

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…

There’s something called Auditory Processing Disorder where you are not able to able to differentiate sound and it supposedly can develop later in life. I’ve had it since I was a kid because I always passed the hearing tests but every other kid had no trouble listening to music and understanding the words and so on so I put two and two together. Anyway, I have never been able to understand anyone in any loud public s…

Thank you for the name of this disorder and link! I've also had this my whole life, and I knew it was a thing that wasn't terribly rare (based on reading comments from others in the past, here on HN and elsewhere), but I think this is the first time I've seen a name for this condition.

The Wikipedia page seems to really describe my condition, except for the potential overlap with ADHD. For example, the "difficulty following oral instructions". I can read something and retain it forever, but if someone speaks to me, it will often go in one ear and out the other.

I sometimes wonder if this could be a result of being a very introverted child who started reading at around 3 or 4 years old. (Because reading is so awesome, why bother listening to people -- and improving your auditory neurology -- after that?)

I think I've probably just adapted to the condition. It doesn't seem like any sort of problem or disability. But I suspect others around me find it much more annoying than I do. ;)

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

#354

Post by follower »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #325
superultra wrote: post #185

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'm one of those annoying ADHD people who will hear everything you're saying, ask "What?," and then a second later I've finished processing the audio in my head and am ready to continue the conversation. Similarly, I can't readily differentiate voices from melody in songs. Far too many songs don't have strong enough vocal tracks and the songs might as well just be mud to me. I suppose it's why I gravitated towards ra…

> [...] ADHD people who will hear everything you're saying, ask "What?," and then a second later I've finished processing the audio in my head and am ready to continue the conversation.

You know, until you mentioned it, I'd never thought that that experience might have an ADHD-related component to it. Interesting.

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

#355

Post by dekhn »

roughly wrote: post #334
floatrock wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> restaurant and public space designers have stopped thinking about sound. Most bars opened in the last 15 years have cement floors, very little sound insulation, and they’re based on the idea that you’re not having a good time unless your ears are ringing. Recently listened to a really good podcast about this phenomenon https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gastropod/id918896288?... (or pick your favorite podcast ap…

If you’re near Berkeley, CA, one of the owners of the restaurant Comal also owns a sound company that builds that kind of system, and they use Comal as a showplace. The effect is astounding - it’s an industrial-style design, and it’s got auditory “ambiance”, but you can have a full conversation at normal speaking volumes with everyone at the table. It’s the kind of thing where once you experience it, you’ll judge the…

Oh neat: https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-08/restaurant...

Meyer Sound which did the sound install for the space is a long-time well-known innovator in sound tech- for example, establishing vertical line arrays. Years ago the son of the founder was doing advanced space modelling for the best sound (basically, entering the room geometry and simulating with helmholtz equations).

I will go there just for the experience.

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

#356

Post by dekhn »

ceejayoz wrote: post #189
superultra wrote: post #185

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've got a similar thing; I can't pull most song lyrics out of the song, and any significant amount of background noise means lip reading for me. Hearing's all fine, it's the processing that doesn't work quite right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder

This is why I turn on closed captioning even when I'm watching alone with headphones on.

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

#357

Post by simmons »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #316
1123581321 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not say it's snake oil, but it will only help if you've learned some helplessness or are bad at thinking about what someone is saying while they are speaking. A hearing aid or filter is always going to be more helpful if you only can pick one treatment.

But that's the thing, I'm in the similar position to others in the chain - last week, an audiologist said my hearing was tremendously good. But if there's noise around me, I cannot process what people are saying. I'm not sure what you mean by "only if you've learned some helplessness." I'm not a complete idiot, I can generally guess what someone is saying based on context, but if I'm having a conversation with Group…

> if someone who didn't hear you says, "what", or "can you say that again?", don't just repeat the last three words you said.

My pet peeve about asking people to repeat isn't that they won't repeat enough, but that they'll repeat in exact the same volume and enunciation as they originally spoke. I'm not sure why they expect to do the same thing again and get different results. The only thing that I've found that works is to tell them what it sounds like they said, no matter how crazy ("Did you say, 'the elephant is painting the room'?") and only then will they speak loud and clear. (Which I'm sure is annoying for the other person, but what else am I to do?)

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

#358

Post by follower »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #309
gertlex wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, is that your first pair of phonaks? If not, is the use use of bluetooth + app hurting your soul? My current pair are about 6 years old, working fine still, thankfully... But in a recent visit to audiologist, they had me test out a newer pair... but they had a single button instead of rocker + button, and bluetooth/app was touted. I dread the touchscreen phase of HA as a young person with functional fingers (…

Second, but first with BT. Connecting to the app takes forever and frequently fails. It seems to clash with the Android device pairing somehow. It's not great. The only workaround I've found (if restarting the things by opening/closing the battery compartment doesn't work) is to remove the pairing and set them up again. I also would prefer to set up the programs once and then switch them with physical buttons. I had…

> I also would prefer to set up the programs once and then switch them with physical buttons. [...] The bad app experience is honestly a reason for me to look at other brands for my next pair.

While the latter is probably the preferred approach for dealing with the issue, I'll admit my mind first went to:

If you've got time for a side-project maybe consider reverse engineering the Android app's Bluetooth support... and, you know, "just" re-implement the same thing in some stand alone hardware. :)

There may even already be a project related to your device--I'm aware of multiple health/medical-tech/device related reverse engineering projects that were primarily driven people with programming/hardware experience wanting to avoid crappy vendor apps & have control of very personally relevant devices.

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

#359

Post by jwagenet »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #316
1123581321 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not say it's snake oil, but it will only help if you've learned some helplessness or are bad at thinking about what someone is saying while they are speaking. A hearing aid or filter is always going to be more helpful if you only can pick one treatment.

But that's the thing, I'm in the similar position to others in the chain - last week, an audiologist said my hearing was tremendously good. But if there's noise around me, I cannot process what people are saying. I'm not sure what you mean by "only if you've learned some helplessness." I'm not a complete idiot, I can generally guess what someone is saying based on context, but if I'm having a conversation with Group…

The parent poster’s word choice was perhaps uncharitable, but my read is helplessness is not equitable to idiocy. To me, it’s more the difference between actively trying to understand the conversation vs letting it tune out as a default.

I find that I have trouble focusing on one conversation if others are happening around me, but that has much to do with where my focus lies as my brain being overwhelmed.

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

#360

Post by jives »

ddmf wrote: post #241
serial_dev wrote: post #162

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 have issues with auditory processing disorder which means my hearing is actually really good, but someone talking to me seems to get a much lower decode priority than some random noise around me - if I can see the lips, even though I can't lipread, it helps me decode the speech with a much greater accuracy. Every time I looked into this, it seemed to push the link with autism and/or adhd - back in 2008 I wasn't dia…

I'm recently diagnosed and I experience the same. Listening to someone in a crowded room takes a ton of effort because my brain wants to track all of the other conversations and noises.
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