[HN Gopher] Open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applic...
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Open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applications
Author : vyrotek
Score : 52 points
Date : 2025-05-01 18:29 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (open-earable.teco.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (open-earable.teco.edu)
| victorbjorklund wrote:
| This is pretty cool. Crazy price though (guess more of a devkit).
| Hopefully this will get adopted by others like Apple.
| Etheryte wrote:
| Despite their recent massive flops in the AI department, in a way
| this makes me excited about Apple's prospects in this regard in
| the long term. These are bigger than AirPods, but they're not
| _that_ much bigger. Shave off the USB-C connector for wireless
| charging, swap the battery out to accommodate for the shape and
| you're already pretty close. Apple is really good at fitting
| things into the smallest form factor possible, and given they
| could offload all the compute to the iPhone which already comes
| with some pretty good chips, this could lead to some really
| exciting tech in the long run. They need to get their act
| together before that can happen though.
| MeteorMarc wrote:
| What is the weight of one of these ear buds? I guess too much
| weight can easily give you head aches. On the other hand, it
| seems from the pics that further miniaturization is possible.
| riedel wrote:
| My boss actually switched to wearing them all day dogfooding
| the thing (I work in the same lab: also as a disclosure). For a
| long time a downside was the audio, but the new version has a
| really nice driver and amazing DSP optimizations. The
| colleagues also conducted wearability studies and I also can
| confirm (having participated) that they are really walearable.
| Don't have the numbers but they are not really heavier than
| other in ears from my impression.
| rpaddock wrote:
| I see "Ear Canal Pressure Sensor" is listed on the website.
|
| I know that NASA was doing some research on using the
| tympanic membrane to measure intercranial pressure. Ask
| around, please, and find out if anyone has considered that
| application. We really do need a better way to detect
| cerebrospinal leak (CSF Leaks). A CSF Leak was a significant
| contribution to my late wife's death.
| riedel wrote:
| I will forward that to my colleagues, who are looking
| constantly for new applications (particularly in health
| tech). The sensor exists since Toby's paper on measuring
| tensor timpani muscle activity [0] .
|
| [0] https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445205
| jpalomaki wrote:
| Starter bundle price: 2348EUR
| riedel wrote:
| It is fully open HW packed with not so cheap sensors and also a
| bit tricky to assemble. Target group for assembled devices are
| mostly other research labs. My colleague who developed the
| thing actually is thinking about a cheap version. However, the
| USP are all the sensors.
| Swain123 wrote:
| I was actively looking for something like this and had found this
| last week. Pine buds pro is another option that gives you quite a
| lot of control with access to the firmware. But I cant seem to
| get my hands on any of them. Either the custom duty doubles the
| price or it is too costly.
|
| Nonetheless open-source ear buds is a big need for the
| engineering and hacker community.
| djtango wrote:
| I'm probably not the target customer but could someone ELI5 what
| this is for?
| shae wrote:
| I'd say this many sensors in a wireless package can do many
| things.
|
| My first project would be exercise monitoring. You can measure
| heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and body temperature in one
| place.
|
| I would then add something fun like comparing beats per minute
| of the music to heart rate.
|
| I like the creators' suggestion of using the shape of the ear
| canal for authentication, I bet that's harder to steal off a
| video recording than fingerprints or a retinal pattern.
|
| I'd also use this for voiceless speech, as the creators
| suggest.
|
| I could think of more, but I won't be able to afford the dev
| kit, sadly.
| eloycoto wrote:
| This is very cool project I need to say. I really like all the
| things that you build on top of that. I had no idea about the
| BMA550 accelerometer usage to detect speech and silences, it's
| very very cool.
|
| Regarding the IMU, it mentioned the MM-FIT for workouts, but I
| checked the code and it's not used at all, no?
|
| Good job, awesome product :-)
| shae wrote:
| I'd love to buy this, but I can't afford 2500 euro for a personal
| fun project.
|
| I have previously purchased and written[1] about the Tympan.org
| open source hardware hearing aid[2], but it's about $300 which I
| can reasonably purchase.
|
| If this comes down in price, I'd love to build some neat things
| with this hardware.
|
| [1] https://www.scannedinavian.com/open-source-hardware-
| hearing-... [2] https://shop.tympan.org/collections/all
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