HearAngel

HearAngel® enables headphone users to understand their exposure to sound and make informed decisions about their listening in order to avoid permanently damaging their hearing.

HearAngel® licenses embedded software to wireless headphone (this term is used to describe all types of wireless headphone, headset, earpiece, earbud, TWS or hearable) manufacturers that provides real time measurement and user feedback of sound dosage and the effects of what is being listened to, with automatic alerts for risk of overexposure. Users are provided with easy to understand metrics of the safe listening time remaining. The hearing safeguarding solution provides optional automatic protection as well as a parental control features that enables users to manage their children’s listening habits and choose their listening levels and duration.

The safety standard compliant software is integrated within the headphones themselves, allowing autonomous safeguarding operation whenever the user is listening, regardless of the sound source (whether a mobile phone, tablet, gaming console, music player or Hi Fi).

Child on iPad wearing headphones

Risks of prolonged noise exposure

The silent epidemic of permanent hearing loss

We evolved as humans around five million years ago with hearing to enable us to communicate and keep us safe, it hasn’t evolved much since.

We use headphones more and more in our daily lives, but our hearing is not designed to be exposed to these large sound doses for prolonged periods according to the World Health Organisation. As a result more than 2.5 billion of us are at risk of permanent, avoidable noise induced hearing loss by 2050.

The biggest source of large sound doses for most of us is from headphones so new safety standards have been introduced to provide us with information about our sound exposure so we can manage it ourselves.

What would it be like if you had hearing damage?
Listen to the clips below to find out

Tinnitus
Ringing or buzzing in the ears

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High Frequency Loss
Inablity to hear frequencies of 2,000 Hz or higher

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Source: World Health Organisation (who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/ear-care/en/)

Hearing Safeguarding Solution

Why HearAngel®?

Until now there has been no way for headphone users to calculate their sound dose outside of a laboratory; it has not been possible for anyone to accurately determine what is “too loud” nor how long is “too long” to avoid hearing damage.

HearAngel® s built into wireless headphones to calculate the effect of what is being listened to and provide accurate information about listening habits, notifying the user if they are at risk; think of it like a Fitbit™ for ears. Headphone users can choose to enable HearAngel’s protection feature which manages their sound exposure automatically, making sure that they don’t exceed their Daily Sound Allowance® and preventing them from being exposed to harmful sound doses.