HeardThat
Singular Hearing has unveiled the HeardThat AI app at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. HeardThat turns a smartphone into a hearing assistant, helping to tune out background noise to enable individuals with hearing loss to hear speech more clearly, allowing them to engage in conversations they would otherwise have trouble hearing.
“Often the first step in helping people with a hearing problem is an in-ear hearing aid,” said Singular Hearing Founder and CEO, Bruce Sharpe. “However, the weakness of even the most sophisticated hearing aids is the challenge of separating speech from background noise. Hearing aids tend to amplify all sound, making it difficult to have one-on-one or group conversations in a noisy environment.”
HeardThat uses advanced machine learning algorithms to separate speech from noise. According to the company, it listens to the noisy environment and delivers “de-noised” speech to the individual’s bluetooth-enabled hearing aid or other listening devices via their smartphone.
Machine learning algorithms require too much processing power to run on hearing aids or other small devices. By leveraging the smartphone, the app is freed from hardware constraints.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: Singular Hearing has not yet released a price.
Stockists: HeardThat will be available for download from Singular Hearing’s website in the first quarter of the year.
Read more about the upgraded Google Assistant, Apple’s take on smart homes, an app that makes sharing contacts easier, and a weather app that’s extremely accurate.
Google Assistant upgraded
Google has been concentrating a lot on its assistant in terms of streamlining it and, well, make it a little more clever.
For instance, Webpage reading lets one save an article and have it read back at a later stage. The only difference is when you say “Hey Google, read this page” it reads the page contents and leaves out things like URLs and social networking links.
Also added is the option to schedule actions. For example, you can tell Google to switch on the lights at 8pm and switch them off after an hour. Sounds a bit like science-fiction, but it is here.
Lastly, its speed dial acts like a digital version of those important numbers you write on a sticky note and stick to the fridge. Speed dial allows you to create a list of numbers and “paste” them to a phone’s lock screen, great for emergencies and the like.
Platform: Android
Expect to pay: Pricing has not been released yet but, knowing Google, most of the features will be free or will cost very little.
Stockists: You can start looking out for these features popping up on your device sometime this year.
Read more about Apple’s take on smart homes, an app that makes sharing contacts easier, and a weather app that’s extremely accurate.
Apple HomeKit
For the first time Apple has joined the tech giants in Las Vegas. This year it is showing off its HomeKit, a framework that works with the Home app.
The HomeKit framework is a solid attempt at converting your house into a smart home by allowing one to control most smart devices like fridges, TVs, lights, locks, gates and plugs from an iPhone or iPad. However, it is easier said than done, as even though there is a range of devices that already work with Home, some may not be compatible with the HomeKit framework, so hubs or extra control units may need to be bought to pair the device and HomeKit.
Platform: iOS; however, the HomeKit will be able to connect to Android and Amazon smart devices
Expect to pay: The Home app is free, but the hubs will cost – depending what you want controlled. (Prices have not been released yet)
Stockists: Download the Home app here.
Read more about an app that makes sharing contacts easier, and a weather app that’s extremely accurate.
StayTouch
In the beginning we would manually tap each other’s contact details into our phone, then vcards were developed, but now there is an even easier way to exchange contact details.
StayTouch is a platform that allows users to share contact details by touching their phones together. StayTouch comes packed with a range of built-in features, from its ability to add smart notes for each encounter to automatically syncing and updating your profile throughout your entire network. The app even allows you to context search your contacts and share and exchange information quickly with one or many people.
Platform: Android and iOS
Expect to pay: A free download
Stockists: Visit StayTouch here for downloading instructions.
Read more about a weather app that’s extremely accurate.
Dark Sky
There are thousands of weather apps available on the various app stores, each promising some sort of accuracy, but at the end many of them get the forecast more wrong than the weather man himself.
Dark Sky’s claim to fame is its accuracy that can tell you within minutes of when it’s actually going to rain, snow or when the sun is going to come out.
It also boasts a global map view that shows you where the rain and snow is worldwide at any given time. Dark Sky also features a dedicated do-not-disturb mode, so you can be assured it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night yelling about the rain. But, if you live in a bad-weather area, it may be useful for when you get ready in the morning.
Platform: Android
Expect to pay: A free download but with in-app purchases
Stockists: Download Dark Sky here.