How it works
Two microphones ensure the spatial recognition of surrounding sounds. The background sounds will be displayed as outer circles, exceptionally loud sounds such as sirens are displayed as individual shapes that are defined by four different parameters.
Parameters
- Volume
The volume is represented by the vicinity to the middle, the louder the sound, the closer the shape comes to the middle.
- Direction
The position of the shapes on the screen can be used as a kind of sound compass. If the shape is on the left, the sound comes from the left.
- Pitch
The pitch is represented by the color of the shape, the higher the pitch, the lighter the color.
- Timeframe
The shapes slowly fade away, so the device has a kind of memory function. I can see that there was a loud noise a few seconds ago, how it developed and where it came from.
Calibration
The volume limit that defines if a sound is a background noise or an exceptionally loud noise is relative to the surrounding. It automatically adjusts to the average level of volume in the vicinity. This ensures that coming from a very quiet surrounding to a loud one your wristband won’t be vibrating all the time—just very loud sounds, relative to the current sound surrounding will be submitted through buzzing.
Vibration
If the sounds exceed a certain volume (the inner circle of the visualization), the wristband vibrates. The vibration level can be seen in two ways: on the one hand it is an intensification of a very loud sound; it makes it more experiencable. On the other hand it is an additional indicator of a possibly dangerous situation. Since warning signals are mostly audible it can be a very useful tool especially for a deaf person.
