UW researchers develop headphones prototype
Summary
The team’s artificial intelligence algorithms, combined with a headphone prototype, allow the wearer to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Our AI system can actually learn the distance for each sound source in a room, and process this in real time, within 8 milliseconds, on the hearing device itself.” The prototype was created with noise-cancelling headphones, with small six microphones fixed across the headband. As a result, the team collected data with the mannequin system and with human users in 22 different indoor spaces including offices and residential. The team’s AI algorithm, the researchers believe, is comparing the phases of each of these frequencies to determine the distance of any sound source (a person talking, for instance). In the near future, the team is working to make the technology function on hearing aids and noise-canceling earbuds, which requires a new strategy for positioning the microphones.