Open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applications | Hacker News Reader

Open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applications

open-earable.teco.edu

61 pointsvyrotek14 comments

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

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.

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 :-)

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.

This is pretty cool. Crazy price though (guess more of a devkit). Hopefully this will get adopted by others like Apple.

I'm probably not the target customer but could someone ELI5 what this is for?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Thank you, from all those with CSF Leaks and intercranial pressure issues, being high or low. Let me know if I can help.

Starter bundle price: 2348€

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com