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Bose Hearphones

hearphones.bose.com

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Re: Bose Hearphones

#81

Post by h4nkoslo »

This is basically the same idea as electronic ear protection of the kind typically used for shooting sports, with the addition of a directional microphone to the existing global microphone.

It works extremely well in that form factor, basically like having Superman ears. Conversations are audible, you can turn up the sensitivity to where you can hear footsteps clearly in a house, and gunshots are reduced to the level of, eg, a heavy book falling off a shelf.

https://smile.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Amplification-Electro...

Re: Bose Hearphones

#82

Post by Brakenshire »

logicallee wrote: post #11

they need to get into something they can rent at clubs and concert venues. Clubs are ridiculous. Every time I go to a club, I don't wear hearing protection, and this means that I am consciously making a choice to lose some of my hearing. I should be able to get some foam things that reduce my hearing damage to something reasonable. but imagine if I could rent some kind of insert that actually lets me talk with others…

Yeah, what you want is an earplug that will basically cut out the noise, and then a sophisticated device like this, to allow you to hear directionally, or to reduce background noise, to emphasize speech, and so on.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#83

Post by [deleted] »

Certified wrote: post #64
_fs wrote: post #9

I really wish someone was working to solve the problem of tinnitus. Would it be possible to generate anti phase wave out of these things to cancel out tinnitus? I would pay anything and/or wear any goofy device in my ears to live life tinnitus free.

A project I worked on suggests vibrating the bone just under the earlobe at around 50kHz with a piezoelectric stack might help. 8 years or so ago I helped make a pocket sized and rechargeable medical device that operates on this principle. Last I checked it was still in FDA hell but helping the majority of sufferers in the trials. The theory of operation is that is breaks up tiny air bubbles stuck to the hairs in the…

[deleted]

Re: Bose Hearphones

#84

Post by boobsbr »

web007 wrote: post #44
_fs wrote: post #9

I really wish someone was working to solve the problem of tinnitus. Would it be possible to generate anti phase wave out of these things to cancel out tinnitus? I would pay anything and/or wear any goofy device in my ears to live life tinnitus free.

I believe tinnitus is neurologic, in that there is no noise to cancel out.

Can be from physical damage to the stereocilia in the inner ear.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#85

Post by ZenoArrow »

0xCMP wrote: post #72

How is this on the top of HN? It's barely clear what these actually be like or how they work? Am I missing something?

The technology behind them isn't groundbreaking, but I can think of some good uses for devices like this.

Basically it appears to be a combination of noise cancelling and directional microphones so that you hear more of what you're pointed towards. If you want to get a better feel for how these devices could work, I'd recommend taking a look into directional microphones.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#86

Post by daenney »

logicallee wrote: post #11

they need to get into something they can rent at clubs and concert venues. Clubs are ridiculous. Every time I go to a club, I don't wear hearing protection, and this means that I am consciously making a choice to lose some of my hearing. I should be able to get some foam things that reduce my hearing damage to something reasonable. but imagine if I could rent some kind of insert that actually lets me talk with others…

> Every time I go to a club, I don't wear hearing protection, and this means that I am consciously making a choice to lose some of my hearing.

Maybe you should consciously make a different choice, such as bring ear plugs with you. There's plenty of brands that come in a container that fit easily on a keychain so they're not forgotten.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#87

Post by timtammittee »

pixelcloud wrote: post #18
farnsworth wrote: post #6

I'm not hard of hearing but I often have trouble understanding people at noisy meetups or conferences (or hell, parties). This sounds like an awesome solution. I'm sure I'm not the only one. But what compounds the problem is that I seem to be worse than most at understanding accents (thanks, growing up in middle America). I've gotten better recently, but still.

That means you probably have hearing damage. I read an article recently regarding this, many younger people have issues with this and it IS physical damage.

You are probably talking about what we call a hidden hearing loss. It is called like this because there are currently no clinical tests available.

The reason for this is probably a selective death of synapses in the inner ear. We separate between three types of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs): High spontaneous rate (HSR), low spontaneous rate (LSR) and mid spontaneous rate (MSR). Basically the HSRs are our high gain fibers used for low sound levels. Their response saturates quite early. LSRs on the other hand are low gain fibers used for higher levels.

the ANF synapse can release a large amount of neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft (in this case glutamate) the problem is that high concentrations of glutamate can are actually harmful and HSR fibers seem to be quite sensitive to these high concentrations. If there is a long term exposure to a noisy environment the high glutamate concentration might selectively kills your HSR fibers. The problem with this is that your threshold of hearing is still normal as there is no damage to the HSR fibers which you need to detect low level sounds so your audiogram looks perfectly fine. But you will start to get problems if you are in situations where you need your full dynamic range e.g. understanding speech in a noisy environments.

As you can see from my writing, this is a current subject of research so we do not know for sure but it seems like that you have to be quite careful with long time noise exposure even if the sound levels are below what is normally considered as harmful.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#88

Post by Isamu »

boobsbr wrote: post #77

Wow, this address a major problem I have. I have decent hearing, but when I'm in a noisy environment like a bar, I can hear but can't understand what other people are saying. It's why I don't like going to bars/pubs with live performances or ambient music. People think I'm bored or brooding because I'm not talking to anyone, but I just can't understand anything anyone says, so I can't participate in a conversation.

You get no sympathy from people who can hear what's going on. They simply will not understand why you are so withdrawn.

Oddly enough, my wife has somewhat degraded hearing but she hears a lot better in noisy environments than I do. Must be like applying a filter to the noise, maybe she is losing the frequencies that cause confusion for me.

This will be an interesting product to try out - I hope there are more in the area of enhancing everyday interactions, rather than providing new distractions.

Enhanced vision is another area where I am hoping to see new products.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#89

Post by mi100hael »

dawnerd wrote: post #40
abakker wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've learned that it is just necessary to bring foam earplugs to a lot of events. (even movie theaters now). In general, if the performers are wearing them, you probably should be, too. Your health is not a good place to think about being worried about what other people aren't doing to protect theirs.

You should look into something like these instead of regular foam. http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection.html I got a pair for EDC after realizing the foam earplugs were ruining the music. These reduce the volume with minimal muffling. Also pretty cheap considering they'll last a long time. I picked them up at guitar center - they can help you get the right ones.

For those that use earphones a lot at work or on public transit or whatever, I also highly recommend Etymotic's in-ear isolating earphones. They are basically those musician's earplugs with a small driver in the tip. They reduce external noise on-par with foam plugs, so I can listen to my music at much lower volumes rather than cranking the volume of the music to drown out my surroundings. The sound quality is quite good as well. I have the hf3 model and they are by far better than any other earphones I've used that are sub $200.

Re: Bose Hearphones

#90

Post by iamatworknow »

dawnerd wrote: post #40
abakker wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've learned that it is just necessary to bring foam earplugs to a lot of events. (even movie theaters now). In general, if the performers are wearing them, you probably should be, too. Your health is not a good place to think about being worried about what other people aren't doing to protect theirs.

You should look into something like these instead of regular foam. http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection.html I got a pair for EDC after realizing the foam earplugs were ruining the music. These reduce the volume with minimal muffling. Also pretty cheap considering they'll last a long time. I picked them up at guitar center - they can help you get the right ones.

Another vote for Eytmotic's earplugs from me. I like going to metal concerts but hate how loud they crank the volume since it muddles the sound. With these earplugs you can actual pick out individual instruments during the performance, plus the added benefit of not destroying your hearing.
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