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Doppler Labs, the company behind Here One smart earbuds, has announced that it's shutting down all operations today, as reported by Wired.
Founded in 2013, Doppler Labs debuted the prototype of its Here Active Listening System two years later in 2015. The battery-powered earbuds, according to Doppler Labs founder and CEO Noah Kraft, were built to enhance sound in the world around you. By using the accompanying app, users could, in theory, apply any manner of EQ settings that did everything from reduce overwhelming bass frequencies at a concert to dim the midrange chatter of co-workers while in an office. Kraft's vision for Doppler's future was an compelling idea — "we want to put a computer, speaker, and mic in everyone's ear" — but the Here Active Listening System was met with mixed reviews.
[...] Unfortunately, in bringing Here One to market the company was met with a raft of problems. According to Wired, a manufacturer change pushed production delivery from the fall 2016 to February 2017. There was also bad news on the battery front. The company hoped to offer 4.5 hours of battery life using augmented hearing and three hours of music streaming, but the unit's Bluetooth chip wound up diminishing those expectations.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday November 03 2017, @01:58PM (8 children)
This is my first time hearing about this, and I'm kinda sad about that - I'm the guy always talking about how we need a product like this. [soylentnews.org] So someone goes and builds it, and I'm completely oblivious. And a little upset that I'm only hearing about it now that it's gone. I'd be willing to pay $250 for a pair of bionic ears.
On the flip side, the specific things I'd want it for, including:
* filtering out wind noise
* accentuating nearby conversations
appear to be non-features so far. One can hope that the aftermarket community could add these things with 3rd party code, but with no further product entering the market this seems unlikely. It'll be kinda like the cuecat [1] where a few people do mildly interesting things with it for a while, then the community dies.
With any luck these guys will dump their design files and specs into github and it'll seed future development. We may need to wait for better batteries and more efficient DSPs, but Moore's Law says 5 years or so from now technology will have caught up with this vision.
[1] Am I dating myself by referencing that? Maybe I should have used Snap spectacles instead... [nodwick.com]
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 03 2017, @02:22PM (1 child)
Google is trying to one-up [theverge.com] Apple's AirPods with real-time translation. Under $250. The future for this category of devices is looking better than ever, and if it's hackable, FDA medical device restrictions could be bypassed.
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(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday November 03 2017, @03:07PM
Just as long as anybody trying to make money off it still has to deal with the regulations. People so easily forget that there's a difference between sharing and selling, and it has to do with the incentive to push snake oil.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @02:43PM
You have a date with yourself? :-)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Friday November 03 2017, @03:53PM (4 children)
The problem with this "bionic ears" idea is that it's really not comfortable to keep plugs in your ears for a long time. You can't use normal earbuds, because to filter out wind noise, for instance, like you mention, you have to completely block the ear canal. That means you needs something that fits very snugly in there. I have some earplugs like that for wearing at rock concerts, and they're really not that comfortable; they're OK for a couple hours, but then I'm really ready to take them out. It's really bad if you have any kind of sinus or congestion problems, as is common in the colder months. Wearing earplugs all day long is a total non-starter for me.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday November 03 2017, @04:50PM (3 children)
Good point. I've personally made my peace with long-wear earplugs, having worked over a decade in industry with loud machinery; I forget sometimes how hard that hill was to climb. You're completely right that the system they use for blocking the ear canal will need a lot of careful design, and I'm probably going to be picky about what solution they come up with, despite the cavalier attitude I expressed above.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday November 03 2017, @05:02PM (2 children)
It doesn't help that people have differently-sized ear canals, so you can't use a one-size-fits-all approach. The Etymotics earplugs I use for concerts, for instance, come in two sizes (small/large). I also remember having a Jabra cellphone headset years ago that came with several different rubber plugs, to try to fit differently-sized ears. But personally, I don't believe anything will really work here for everyone. With a comfortable enough design, some people might be OK keeping some plugs in their ears all day, but I think many people simply won't. Your ear canals simply were not meant to have things stuck in them for hours, exerting outward pressure; it's a sensitive part of the body. And plugs would also affect air pressure, which is going to cause problems.
What we really need to to have our inner ears simply removed, and replaced with bionic implants...
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday November 03 2017, @05:30PM (1 child)
I'm down with that. While you're replacing the cochlea, eardrum, and all those fiddly bones, let's replace the semicircular canals with a 3-axis gyroscope/accelerometer-on-a-chip; I got an infection there once and for the duration was puking any time my head moved.
Do you think the bionic replacement will get rid of my tinnitus, too?
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 03 2017, @07:49PM
Not necessarily:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus#Subjective_tinnitus [wikipedia.org]
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