Sensear Headphones Suppress Ambient Noise and Boost Voice

Sensear, an Australian company, has developed an interesting technology aimed at reducing the Noise Induced Hearing Loss syndrome encountered in several industrial fields.

The innovation could find some use in domestic activities, but it could be put to better use in other "loud" environments, such as mining, manufacturing, construction, transport, agriculture, public utilities etc.

Sensear's technology is a wearable combination of hardware and software that enables speech communication in constant high noise environments, while using hearing protection. The basic idea is that while using the Sensear technology your hearing is protected against ambient noise, but you are still able to hear the person who is talking to you.

The traditional technologies suppress noise, based solely on frequencies. When noise is suppressed on a frequency that ambient noise and speech use, both the ambient noise and the speech will be suppressed.

When applying the traditional, frequency-based technologies, when speech is amplified, then ambient noise is also amplified. Conversely, when ambient noise is suppressed, then speech is also suppressed.

Sensear's technology is the only technology in the world which can isolate and enhance speech as a single property in real-time. Utilizing proprietary algorithms Sensear's technology can distinguish speech from ambient noise. This enables clear speech to be heard in high noise environments above 85 dB(A).

The company says that the new technology combines noise suppression with a highly directive multi-microphone system that selects the direction of the speaker and suppresses sound from all other directions. It uses post filtering techniques to further improve noise suppression and enhance speech. This processing is done in real-time and at very low levels of power consumption.

The Australians don't have a pricing policy yet, only some possible headphone designs, but you can see from the images the direction they are heading to.

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