A group of researchers at the University of Washington has developed a pair of wireless headphones that are able to provide an advanced level of complete isolation of ambient noise, providing a distinctive experience when listening to music or your favorite audio program, as well as improving the listening of the other party to the speaker’s voice more clearly during phone calls.
The main idea behind the new headphones, which bears the name ClearBuds, stems from a personal problem that the research group faced while working from home during the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and their struggle with finding a quiet place at home away from the noise to conduct remote meetings via video calls.
The researchers analyzed the way wireless headphones available in the market, such as Apple AirPods, work via Bluetooth with their currently available capabilities, and how they provide the feature of noise isolation, and discovered that the “wireless” headphones depend on their connection to the user’s phone or device, the sound source through only one headset, which in turn exchanges The information is with the phone, and then that data is shared with the speaker in the user’s other ear, so the sound quality isn’t quite as expected.
As for the noise isolation feature around the user, the researchers found that the headphones rely on their own processors and chips to isolate noise, in addition to the fact that the headset with current Bluetooth protocols allows collecting information regarding the noise surrounding the user from only one headphone microphones, which makes this feature unable to get rid of From the sounds surrounding the user completely, especially in crowded places such as cafes, restaurants and shopping malls.
Therefore, the researchers worked on developing their headset to work differently, as it relies on different protocols to communicate via Bluetooth, so that each headset can be connected to the phone via a separate communication path, and then the phone plays an important role in data processing using its most advanced and capable processor than the processor available on board the headset The same, and there is a time difference between the data transmission from the two speakers to the phone regarding 70 microseconds.
Researchers have developed a neural network that relies on the phone’s processor, so that it can examine and analyze the data from the two headphones, then it becomes easy to identify the directions and locations of sounds in relation to the user’s ears, in addition to determining the sounds that must be eliminated as noise, and those that must be strengthened and strengthened Its sharpness becomes clearer to the listener, all of which takes place in regarding 20 milliseconds.
The researchers explained that their headphones at the current stage mainly work on smartphones, because the neural network used by them is compatible to work with phones only, but they are working on developing it so that it becomes more efficient and better in its work so that it is compatible to work on board a processor that will be included directly inside the headphones. Clear Budds”.
