for those with audio sensory overload issues....

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wouldn't it be cool to have some kind of "autistic hearing aid" that filters out extraneous noise, leaving only necessary speech and warning sounds ie fire alarms or vehicle noises, with the possibility of including music, but excluding crappy bground chatter etc?


it is possible to purchase hearing aids that have binaural reverb cancellation that is able to hone in on local sound sources and reducing ambient noise

cell phones have noise cancelling technology, many newer phones have multiple microphones for environmental noise cancellation

there are new conference systems in development that have microphones that sense from which direction a human speaker is positioned and adjusts itself accordingly to remove extraneous noise...

so we could converge all these technologies into a single, mobile product...



so, an "autistic hearing filter" may not be too far off into the future...

(i'm looking into stuff like this as part of my college studies)

if these already exist, please share

the technology has been there for a decade or more.

all it takes is a need and for someone to actually do it.

first step is to block out all other noise, which is near impossible, how it is possible to drastically reduce all noise with a type of noise-canceling earphones

then to have a microphone array amplify sounds which one may be "deaf" to, and to mute/"dial down" sounds which one may be over sensitive to.

it's all well and good saying the technology is there, but i'm interested in whether it is actually feasible - ie as it is impossible to completely mute all sounds with earplugs, only to "turn down" the overall volume - so it will have to be a "volume control"


next, how would it be possible (what i want to look into) to create a small and mobile audio processor that can recognise different audio sources, and adjust their mix accordingly.. i could probably do this with a laptop a DAW, a few VSTs, an interface etc - but would you want to carry all this round? i think not. at the moment, the best i can think would be 2 in-ear noise-cancelling headphones with inbuilt omni microphones, using a smartphone as a CPU - so you're going to wearing an iPod all the time basically....

more thought required...

Well it's an interesting idea but I can hardly stand having headphones in for too long even if I'm listening to my favorite music, so I certainly probably would not want to walk around with a hearing aid style device in my ears.

I have some high frequency ear plugs, not great if you're trying to hold a conversation with someone, but I find them really helpful if I go into. Busy shopping centre, I just leave me hair over my ears so people don't stare (the high frequency filter sticks out of the earplug a bit, but meh. They also work well in the cinema, since they're always so loud anyway.

I'd love for someone to make a proper, fine tuned version, it sounds like a perfect idea

i want one! i will do what ever programming or digital synthesis required to make it work, just get me one, please.

noise-cancelling earphones: easy-peasy

noise-cancelling earphones with omni mics attached: doable

the Audio CPU will have to be an Android - can't imagine iOS being friendly...

obviously, the hardest part is going to be developing the software that determines what noise to dial down and what to turn up (ie using interactive noise gates and adaptive filtering)

as we need a starting point (a track page on source-forge might be a good idea tbh), we should look into building an audio app with two-in/two-out IO with a noise-filter for discriminating between loud (someone standing next to you) and soft(background noise) sounds, filtered for sharp vocal sounds(so it doesn't pick up a distant conversation) and low rumbly stuff (for traffic noises due to safety etc).

Actually if you're using an Android phone to do the work, deciding which sounds to filter would be the easy part.
Since you're using Android, you could control the volume of pre-determined freq ranges and even have preset noise cancellation configurations for different situations/environments. It wouldn't be hard to fit all that into an Android app.
I think the hardest part would be in porting over whatever noise cancelling technology is available now to the Android OS.
Whatever they have for noise cancelling headphones and hearing aids isn't designed to run on a cell phone, and I wouldn't count on manufacturers to be of much or any help.
But you never know, maybe somebody over at XDA could do it, there's some pretty smart people over there and most don't mind helping for a good cause.

If I had an app on my phone that would make my headphones cancel ambient noise, or lower/mute selected frequencies, my phone would need a better battery. There's always at least 2 TV's on, sometimes the radio too, plus people talking over top of the radio and TV's. If I had a noise cancelling cell phone, I might not have to resort as often to being really nasty with people just to make them go away from me so I can get a little peace. This is a great idea, and it seems like it should be do-able. A nice pair of noise cancelling headphones can be had for under $100, then it's just a matter of using the phone's microphone/s to pick up sound and the app to choose what sound/s to filter.
Seems like a really good idea to me.