VIDEO: AudioTelligence invites hearing aid companies to evaluate new listening device
Cambridge software startup AudioTelligence is offering hearing aid and consumer electronics companies the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of its new product, the Orsana, for improving hearing.
AudioTelligence also provides the companies with a reference design that they can use to create and release their own assistive listening devices. These devices can be paired with their BLE TWS earbuds and/or hearing aids, giving them a quick pathway to this growing market.
The Orsana is a universal assistive listening device designed to help everyone hear clearly in noise – with or without hearing aids.
In the past, solutions for hearing in noise have either been traditional hearing aids, which need additional own brand remote microphones to work well in noise, or separate, more generic remote microphones that must have a wired connection to earbuds, according to AudioTelligence.
Devices by AudioTelligence can enable hearing enhancement across a range of consumer devices including earbuds, smartphones and tablets.
The Orsana device will enable consumers will be able to add additional hearing enhancement to any brand of Bluetooth Low Energy enabled hearing aids, or simply enhance their ability to hear in noise by connecting wirelessly to earbuds. All using the same device.
Orsana is a tabletop remote microphone that will leverage the new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), low latency codec and which is set to become a key component of the hearing enhancement offering from both hearing aid manufacturers and makers of consumer electronics.
The new Bluetooth technology will allow the device to connect wirelessly to BLE enabled hearing aids or to wireless earbuds, with the low latency necessary for face-to-face conversations.
Earbud manufacturers are currently developing new products which will harness BLE Low Latency, making them ideal partners for Orsana.
Orsana will be able to combine with Auracast, the exciting new development which will enable several people to connect to one device; with the addition of Orsana, everyone using that device can have their own personalised audio stream.
The world of hearing assistance is changing fast: there is no longer a clear distinction between hearing aids as medical devices and True Wireless Stereo earbuds as consumer products, says Audiotelligence.
In the UK it is now possible to buy over the counter hearing aids online, without prescription or audiology referral. At the same time, the use of wireless earbuds for hearing enhancement is growing in popularity.
Orsana offers a solution for hearing aid users who struggle in social situations where traditional options are insufficient. For non-hearing aid users, Orsana caters to the increasing demand for solutions that enable the user to hear in noisy environments, which was identified in recent research by Qualcomm.
True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds are no longer used just for listening to music; hearing enhancement, video and voice calls already account for 36 per cent of daily TWS earbud usage and this percentage is set to grow.
Ken Roberts, CEO of AudioTelligence, said: “Orsana is an important part of this new world of hearing. The new BLE low latency codec is about to create a world of audio where wireless hearing enhancement on different consumer devices, including multiple personalised audio from one device, becomes a reality.”
Measuring 6 x 6 centimetres, Orsana is a compact, portable device that demonstrates the technology and is designed for conversations in noisy environments. It allows users to focus on the people they want to hear while at the same time reducing background noise.
Orsana is powered by AudioTelligence’s blind source separation technology, which unlike beamforming or AI, separates speech from different sources and allows the user to choose what they listen to, enabling clean speech to be delivered to BLE earbuds or hearing aids.
Dave Betts, AudioTelligence’s Chief Science Officer, added: “We are proud of what Orsana can achieve, but we are not stopping here. Next on our roadmap will be to put this same technology into an earbud charging case, giving consumers an all-in-one device combining earbuds and hearing enhancement”.
AudioTelligence recently announced that its aiso audio processing device won a Hearing Technology Innovator Award.
