
ARM in Your Ear: Computers, Not Hearing Aids - sharp11
http://superpowered.com/ear-computing-apple-w1-processing-computation
======
Jemaclus
I'm completely deaf in one ear (no amount of amplification will help) and
severe-to-profoundly deaf in my other ear. I wear a hearing aid in that ear,
and it allows me to function normally in everyday society.

In the last 5 years, we've gone from merely amplification to having digital
processes for filtering out background noises, like air conditioning or
traffic. My current aid has Bluetooth, which syncs directly to my phone. It's
a total game-changer. I can now stream the audio directly to my ear, bypassing
noisy (in both senses of the word) transfer from voice to microphone to
speaker to microphone to ear.

That said, ever since digital hearing aids became a thing, I've been adamant
that someday it will benefit Hearing People just as much as it benefits me --
if not more! Hearing People can take advantage of the background noise
filtering, singling out specific voices in a crowded room, or having a Siri-
like speak directly into your ear.

I can't wait for the technology to shrink to the point where even I can take
advantage of those things, and as much as I do enjoy the headphone jack
(wearing headphones means my hearing aid battery isn't drained by BT usage),
I'm genuinely excited at the possibilities of having powerful computers
embedded in the ears. Think Google Glass, but Google Ears instead. Exciting as
hell.

I'm stoked!

That said, and let me digress for a moment, there are two major complaints
that I wish Resound and Siemens and the other hearing aid manufacturers could
fix, and that I hope Apple, et al, tackle when they build these devices.

First, battery life is decent, but not great. I change my batteries
approximately every 5 days, and it often dies in awkward situations, like mid-
phone call or when I'm in a meeting. There's a short warning period that
allows me to gracefully exit the situation and replace the battery, but it's
still frustrating.

And the second is water-proofing. I am completely deaf in the shower, in the
pool, in the hot tub, when it's raining, while kayaking or surfing, or running
through the sprinkler with my niece on a hot summer day. Swimming is one of my
favorite activities, but because I can't socialize like Hearing People, it's
an extremely frustrating activity, as well.

Hopefully those two problems are on the minds of the engineers building these
devices, because I think those will be two of the hardest problems to solve
moving forward.

~~~
Eridrus
There's no way consumer tech will have better battery life than your hearing
aid, people want as many features as can be packed into an overnight charge
since people are pretty used to that routine now. Waterproofing is the new
differentiator though, so that seems likely.

------
fsiefken
If you just use wiring instead of bluetooth, you don't have a latency problem.
The upcoming Pebble Core supports wired audio-out and microphone. Just strap
that on your head, like I've been doing with the iPod nano, and you can talk
to it (IF the Pebble Core has Android with speech recognition and text to
speech).

I'm not comfortable with a 3G radio a centimeter form to my brain, perhaps 2G
(Edge) is less problematic in that regard. Make it water-tight and I can use
echo location underwater for navigation

~~~
coupdejarnac
I've made a hearing aid app for iPhone, and I have people ask me all the time
why I don't support bluetooth headsets.. That extra delay BT introduces makes
the experience worse, but I suppose the technology is magic to most people.

~~~
new299
It'll be interesting to see if the AirPods have similar latency issues or with
push toward Bluetooth Apple have resolved many of the latency issues
(obviously low latency wireless is totally possible).

~~~
blktiger
I doubt it since the air pods are just Bluetooth headphones.

------
wila
> Now you can see why we speculate that the AirPods are similarly equipped
> with XNU on an ARM SoC.

Sensational speculation?

~~~
TickleSteve
... And wrong, the Bluetooth chipsets are typically based around cortex m0
level devices... And those don't support XNU.

There is absolutely no need to put an iOS level devices in a pair of ear buds,
video decoding on the other hand does need that.

~~~
wila
Yep, my bet is that they're just expensive blue tooth ear buds.

If they would need to do any additional processing then the most logical place
to do that is the phone, not the air pod.

~~~
vlaskovits
Not if you need low-latency...

------
lobius
Makes me think of that 'Pilot' translator thing:
[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/meet-the-pilot-smart-
earp...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/meet-the-pilot-smart-earpiece-
language-translator-headphones-travel#/)

Although I suspect they're going to be just regular bluetooth headsets as
opposed to doing local audio processing. Still going to be horrendous latency
to contend with.

