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AI-Powered Headphones Let You Listen To Just One Person In A Crowd

Developed by a team at the University of Washington, this AI-enabled system allows users to zero in on a single voice amidst background noise.

 


Imagine you're at a bustling party or a crowded conference, trying to focus on a single conversation amidst the chatter. It's a common frustration, but a new technology developed by the University of Washington could make this problem a thing of the past. The innovative AI system, designed to work with off-the-shelf headphones, allows users to isolate and listen to one person's voice just by looking at them for a few seconds.

How It Works

According to a news release from the University of Washington, the "Target Speech Hearing" system requires only a pair of headphones equipped with dual microphones. To engage the system, you simply tap a button while looking at the person you want to hear. The sound waves from the target's voice are captured by the microphones, which send the signal to an onboard computer. The AI embedded in the system then learns the voice patterns of the speaker. As the person continues to talk, the AI refines its understanding, enabling it to filter out all other voices and noises.

The simplicity of the setup means you can move around and still hear the selected voice clearly. This is a significant advancement over current noise-canceling headphones, which generally focus on reducing background noise rather than isolating a single voice.

Comparing Current Technologies

While many current headphones and earbuds, such as Apple's AirPods Pro, offer noise cancellation and features designed to enhance specific sounds, they don't provide the level of focus that Target Speech Hearing promises. For instance, AirPods Pro has settings like Personalized Volume and Conversation Awareness that adjust audio levels based on ambient noise, and an accessibility feature called Conversation Boost that amplifies nearby conversations. However, these features still allow some degree of background noise to seep through.

The UW system, on the other hand, is designed to offer a much more targeted auditory experience, isolating one voice with a higher degree of precision. Senior author and UW professor Shyam Gollakota highlighted this distinction, noting that while AI is often seen as the domain of web-based chatbots, this project showcases AI's potential to enhance auditory perception directly.

Testing and Limitations

The UW team tested their system with 21 participants, who reported that the clarity of the enrolled speaker's voice was almost twice as high compared to unfiltered audio. Despite these promising results, the system has a few limitations. Currently, it can only enroll one speaker at a time and struggles to differentiate between voices if they come from the same location. Additionally, while it works with headphones, the team is still developing support for earbuds and hearing aids.

Moreover, the system is not yet commercially available. However, the code for the device has been made accessible to developers, encouraging further innovation and potential commercialization in the future.

Future Prospects

The potential applications of Target Speech Hearing are vast. From enhancing communication in noisy environments to assisting individuals with hearing impairments, this technology could revolutionize how we interact in crowded spaces. For now, interested parties can delve deeper into the system by exploring the team's presentation and report delivered at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Honolulu on May 14.

As the technology progresses, we might soon find ourselves in a world where focusing on a single conversation in a sea of noise is as simple as wearing a pair of headphones.

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Source: ZDNET

Photo Credit: University of Washington/YouTube

Social Media Hashtags: #AItechnology #NoiseCancellation #DigitalInnovation
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