Summary of Wear – A wearable personal assistive hearing device
Wear is a lightweight, affordable wearable directional analog microphone that enhances conversational clarity for people with hearing loss. Using a patent-pending analog beam-forming array of 10 micro-microphones, it creates a circular 6-foot zone that amplifies near-field coherent sounds while reducing distant noise by about 10–11 dB. Rechargeable, volume-controlled, and compatible with any headphones, Wear offers high-fidelity, low-latency performance without digital signal processing, suitable for noisy social settings, interviews, and general recording, but not intended as a replacement for prescribed hearing aids.
Parts used in the Wear:
- Micro-miniature directional microphones (beam-forming array of 10 microphones)
- Analog amplification circuitry
- Volume control
- Rechargeable battery
- Low-power lightweight enclosure/wearable housing
- Headphone output/connector compatible with any pair of headphones
- Acoustic design for creating a 6-foot directional zone
- Charging circuitry/port
Wear is an affordable, attractive, lightweight wearable assistive directional microphone designed to improve quality of hearing.
Wear is an assistive device designed to improve quality of life for people with hearing loss. Wear is a high fidelity directional analog microphone that is significantly lower in price than existing hearing aids. This microphone can be used with any pair of headphones, has a volume control, is rechargeable, and comfortable to wear.
We’ve been developing this technology in our Brooklyn Studio for the past two years. Wear incorporates a low profile micro-miniature, patent pending, directional microphone technology that creates a 6 foot zone which captures, focuses and clarifies conversations in noisy environments, while reducing the effects of extraneous noise.
Latency (delay) imposed by digital signal processing is detrimental to the hearing impaired due to lip sync (lip reading) difficulties. For that reason we used an analog circuit design with no measurable latency. We incorporate a technology using a beam-forming array of 10 microphones that create a circular 6 foot zone. Acoustic waves generated in that zone (coherent) reach the microphones at the same time so they are amplified. Sounds from further away (non coherent) reach the microphones at different times are not amplified. This creates a near field to far field signal level difference of 10 to 11 db. That 10 db level difference improves the intelligibility of near field conversation. Our research over the past two years has allowed us to reduce the size of beam forming arrays to unprecedented small form factors in a lightweight package using low power. All of this is done without digital signal processing while maintaining hi fidelity sound quality so that the directional microphone can also be used for general recording applications as well as an assistive hearing appliance.
Wear is not a replacement for a hearing aid. Wear is designed to be used when an individual is interested in having a quality conversation in very noisy environments like family get togethers, restaurants or meetings. Wear can also be used as a commentators microphone eliminating the need to hold a microphone during an interview and other high quality audio recording applications.
For more detail: Wear – A wearable personal assistive hearing device
- What is Wear designed for?
Wear is designed to improve conversational clarity in noisy environments for people with hearing loss and for high quality recording applications. - How does Wear improve speech intelligibility?
Wear uses a beam-forming array of 10 microphones to create a 6 foot zone that amplifies coherent near-field sounds and reduces distant noise by about 10 to 11 db. - Does Wear use digital signal processing?
No, Wear uses an analog circuit design with no measurable latency and does not use digital signal processing. - Can Wear replace a hearing aid?
No, Wear is not a replacement for a hearing aid; it is intended for use during conversations in very noisy environments. - Is Wear compatible with headphones?
Yes, Wear can be used with any pair of headphones. - Is Wear rechargeable?
Yes, Wear includes a rechargeable battery and charging circuitry. - How large is the directional zone created by Wear?
The device creates a circular 6 foot zone that captures and focuses conversations. - Can Wear be used for recording applications?
Yes, because it maintains high-fidelity sound quality, it can be used for general recording and commentator microphone applications.
