SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — SonicCloud announced late last week that it will be launching with more than $4 million dollars to pursue its goal of making hearing technology accessible for people with hearing loss. The SonicCloud App, currently available on iOS (Apple) only, allows people with moderate to severe hearing loss to more clearly hear phone calls, using their own earbuds.
Larry Guterman, co-founder of SonicCloud, has dealt with hearing loss for most of his adult life and had experienced frequent feedback issues when using his hearing aids on the phone. After a phone conversation with successful Silicon Valley engineer and co-founder of SonicCloud, Jon Lederman, they concluded that they should build hearing aid functionality right into the phone itself.
Using the company’s SonicCloud app, mobile phone calls can be individually calibrated for each person’s hearing needs.
The SonicCloud App
With the app, users take a hearing assessment, which allows the app to customize the settings for each ear. This personalized setting is driven by an algorithm in the cloud that then adjusts the sound settings to an individual’s hearing needs.
According to the company, the hearing profile is improved by:
- Data capture: methods, which were developed in conjunction with an audiologist, are said to offer improved accuracy
- Interactive refinement: Because everyone’s brain processes sound differently, the app helps interactively optimizes for differences between listeners
- Situational tuning: customize your sound while on a call for individual voices or specific environments
The SonicCloud app allows users to modify their sound experience for the best performance in different situations
The cloud-based algorithms process speech in real-time for incoming and outgoing calls, helping optimize and improve the listening experience for individual users.
“SonicCloud is a game changer for people with hearing loss. It provides unparalleled user controls. The hearing fingerprint assessment is user friendly and engaging, providing customizable quality to fit the listener’s unique needs,” said Jody Winzelberg, AuD, former Chief of Audiology at Stanford Children’s Health, who worked closely with the team to develop the app. “This solution has the potential to make a big impact on the lives of people with hearing loss.”
The SonicCloud app can be used with standard earbuds and is free to download. Users pay $9.99 per month to use the cloud calling services for an unlimited number of calls.
Source: SonicCloud
