Hearables

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Design study for hearables

Hearables or Smart headphones (German: smart headphones / earphones) are earphones with additional functions, such as wireless connection, e.g. B. to a smartphone or sensors for medical monitoring and activity tracking . Hearables are thus a form of wearable computing and enable augmented reality . The visual complement are smart glasses .

term

The word "hearable" is a combination of "wearable" and the English word "(to) hear" for to hear. The term was first and simultaneously uttered by Apple in April 2014 in connection with the purchase of Beats Electronics , and by product designer Nick Hunn in a blog post.

Concept and usage

Recent advances in the development of hearables aim to cover the widest possible range of possible applications. Common options for interaction are touch, movement / gestures or voice control . They are mainly used for mobile communication , real-time information services and for applications in activity and health tracking.

A significant part of the research is devoted to the implementation of hearables as hearing aids, especially for the increasing number of seniors who have difficulties with conventional input / output devices such as keyboard, mouse and touchscreen. This can be seen in the cooperation between EHIMA (the European association of hearing aid manufacturers) and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. The European Commission started a similar project in mid-2013 that will run until summer 2016.

With the sale of the first VR glasses in 2016, there was increasing interest in "virtual audio" or 3D audio . An audio output is calculated based on the physical or virtual nature of the wearer's surroundings in order to create a plausible surround sound. Hearables for the machine translation of conversations or with intelligent noise-canceling are also in development .

See also

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  1. ↑ Nick Hunn: "Hearables - The new Wearables" , Wearable Technologies online, April 4, 2014
  2. ↑ Pankay Avad: Hear Ables the new wearables in Healthcare using context n capture
  3. ↑ Homepage EHIMA
  4. ↑ "Bluetooth SIG and EHIMA Partner to Advance Hearing Instrument Technology to Improve the Lives of the Hearing Impaired" , bluetooth.com, April 12, 2014
  5. ↑ Homepage AAL Joint Program
  6. ↑ Carsten Dobschat: "Doppler Here and Waverly Labs Pilot" Mobilegeeks.de, May 16, 2016 (accessed on January 31, 2017)