Your hearing is tech’s new OS

Henrik Matthies
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read
Everyone’s hearing is unique — and soon our key sense to interact with the tech around us

Sight and touch have long since dominated our interaction with connected devices — from the first mobile phones to today’s massive displays. However, we’re now experiencing a “voice-first” hardware upheaval, with tens of millions of smart speakers and wearables entering our lives.

With this, our primary sense for interaction with our intelligent world will increasingly move from sight — to sound. The ear will become tech’s next interface.

“Hearables” are hyped at the moment, at least the idea of an in-ear super-device that can take over most tasks your smartphone handles. Our most useful applications are moving to our ears: controlled by voice, they can call your daughter, direct you to the nearest station, read out messages, place orders, and curate playlists on the go. Sound interaction with technology is becoming more constant, immersive, and interactive all at once. But one crucial factor has so far hardly been looked at — the potential of these devices to improve sound for the individual user — to augment the standard hearing experience — and even protect hearing health.

Hearing is one of our most crucial senses, and one of our most fragile. Due to heavy noise exposure and today’s always-on mentality, our ears have hardly time to rest. Recent studies show that hearing loss significantly increased over the past years even among teenagers. Once a challenge of the elderly, close to 20% of all US school children aged 12–19 have permanent hearing damage already. A major influencing factor is the combination of powerful headphones and constant access to unlimited content.

But when voice soon becomes the dominating sense to control our tech, how will we also alter the interface with our ears? How can we make sound a more interactive and individual experience via technology? How do we secure that hearing is protected and further hearing loss is prevented? And how to make technology accessible to all those who already suffer from hearing loss?

Hearing is lifestyle — and a sense we usually take for granted (picture by beyerdynamic)

Our team at Mimi Hearing Technologies is pioneering hearing software, and may have an answer to these challenges. Though we’ve flown a bit under the radar in Berlin, in the past several years we’ve begun integrating hearing solutions into devices from leaders in consumer audio and electronics. With over 1 million hearing tests conducted, we’re continuously learning about hearing health to drastically improve listening experiences. Europe’s leading university clinic Charité was closely involved in the development of our core research, and our proprietary technology is a medical product in Europe (CE, class 1).

Our technology uses hearing data and dynamic sound augmentation to personalize sound uniquely to individual users’ hearing ability. As everyone hears differently, it comes with great surprise that we all still receive the same audio output — no matter if you are 20 or 80 years old. Mimi adapts sound to individual hearing profile, to provide increased clarity, richer detail and restoring lost frequencies, tuned for differences from user to user.

The most significant breakthrough is, however, that listeners can enjoy sound at a significantly lower peak volume, thus reducing the risk of hearing damage while having better sound perception. Before Mimi, volume was the only dimension any user had to hear “more” or even “better”.

Mimi Defined™, Mimi’s personalized sound solution, has been integrated by a number of premium hardware manufacturers, like Europe’s pro-audio mainstay Beyerdynamic and hearable innovators Bragi. The “Aventho” headphone with Mimi personalization was Beyerdynamic’s most successful headphone launch in its 90-years history, winning among others the IFA Best Audio Award (2017) and the CES Innovation Award (2018). Bragi’s recent software update (BragiOS 3.2) integrated sound personalization technology Mimi Defined into their flagship hearable, the Dash Pro, and quickly became the company’s most loved feature they have ever implemented.

First screenshots of Mimi Defined™ in the Loewe TV menu

Today at this year’s IFA in Berlin, sound personalization is making a significant step by moving out of headphones and hearables into speakers. High-end German TV manufacturer Loewe will announce their integration of Mimi Defined into smart TVs, bringing sound personalization into the living room where all family members can benefit from better sound — at lower, healthier volumes.

We not only see sound as the frontier for improved interaction with technology, but also a new space for further innovation to address hearing health and experience. As more devices and content reach our ears, more science, technology, and personalization will follow. We imagine a world where sound is tuned to your ears, available in the audio that surrounds us. Much like the way prescription glasses have long since become a lifestyle, audio tailored to to how we hear will become the future for every listener.

Disclaimer: I am the co-founder and managing director of Berlin-based Mimi Hearing Technologies GmbH

Written by

Managing Director @hih2025 (health innovation hub of the German Ministry of Health), Founder @MimiHearing & @JodelApp

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