'Hear and Now' with SonicCloud
Communication is a key part of making and building connections with those around you, especially family and friends. One way we commonly communicate with one another is through phone calls, it is a way to speak in real time and to actually hear the voice of the other person. The phone call consists of two parts, one being speaking to somebody and the other part is hearing that which is being said. 1 in 10 people suffer from moderate hearing loss, which is a sudden or gradual decrease in how well you can hear. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) have found that approximately one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 have hearing loss. If you have a grandparent, especially one who lives out of state, who is dealing with hearing loss means that phone calls may not be an option for communicating with them.
“The human voice is one of the most powerful ways we connect, and creating crystal clear phone calls for people with moderate to profound hearing loss is a deceptively difficult problem to solve,” says Larry Guterman, the creator of SonicCloud (and director of successful films such as Cats & Dogs and ANTZ). SonicCloud is a transformative new technology for personalizing audio for millions with moderate to profound hearing loss, starting with perfecting the phone call. It is a beautifully-designed, easy-to-use iOS app that allows people with moderate to severe hearing loss to clearly hear phone calls, using the power of the cloud and their own earbuds.
How SonicCloud Works…
The assessment: Users take a quick hearing assessment, which allows you to set custom levels for right and left ears
The personalization: Each user gets their own personal Hearing Fingerprint, driven by an algorithm in the cloud that intelligently adjusts to an individual’s hearing needs. To zero in on the most accurate hearing profile, there are three tiers of tuning.
Data capture: SonicCloud’s methods, developed in conjunction with an audiologist are accurate and precise.
Interactive refinement: Everyone’s brain processes sound differently. SonicCloud interactively optimizes for neural differences between customers.
Situational tuning: Customize your sound while on a call for individual voices (like your daughter’s high-pitched voice, for example) or environments (like the restaurant your friend is in).
The calls: Incoming/outgoing calls are processed through their “mixing board in the cloud,” which optimizes voices and noisy environments.
The result: Clearly better phone calls.
The SonicCloud app is an affordable, convenient, powerful and simple solution to assist those with a hearing loss who want to connect with someone who can’t hear well on the phone. “With SonicCloud, we’ve harnessed the power of the cloud to process speech in real time. This is going to make a big difference for the millions of the people with hearing loss,” states Guterman. It is an affordable option, as the SonicCloud app is free to download on iOS; users pay just $9.99 per month to use the cloud calling service. With the cloud-based algorithms process speech in real time, providing groundbreaking interactive tools that allow the user to optimize for their unique hearing.
Ultimately, this app used alongside earbuds could be a solution for those dealing with hearing loss who can not afford hearing aids. SonicCloud has raised over $4 million from seed investors including Ian Hogarth (cofounder of SongKick, Bob Bozeman (530 Angels) and Sean Hayes (Jack from Will & Grace). The company has set their mission to advance human communication through personalization advances in digital signal processing and sonic clarity. If you would like to learn more information and see what else they are working on visit them at www.soniccloud.com .
