The sign reads, ‘Protect your hearing! High sound levels can damage your hearing.’
Artificial intelligence could be the key to helping people tune out the din and hear what’s important, according to Google and Australian researchers.
The tech giant revealed work on its Australian Future Hearing Initiative had progressed to training hearing aids and cochlear implants using AI technology and could be ready for trials soon. If successful, the technology could improve results from both devices and help users navigate noisy environments.
The hearing research is one of several AI health projects being undertaken by Google, with others focusing on detecting diseases such as tuberculosis and breast cancer.
Google senior research scientist Simon Carlile said he began investigating the impact of advanced technologies hearing devices after sitting beside his father at a family gathering.
“When I asked him why he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids, he said that in noisy situations like this they just don’t help,” he said.
Hearing aids could make noisy environments like parties and restaurants difficult to navigate for users, Dr Carlile said, as they amplified the noise around them without isolating important, nearby conversations.
Google teamed with Australian research groups including Cochlear, Macquarie University, NextSense and The Shepherd Centre in two projects.
Cochlear director Zachary Smith said the project had advanced to early testing.
“Right now, we have the first algorithms successfully training for both hearing aids and cochlear implants and we hope to start listening experiments in the near future,” he said.