First Wireless Hands-Free Mobile Phone Earpiece

Sound ID has created Personalized Digital Sound, the sound signal processing technology that enhances a user's listening experience. Today, the Company introduced the first Personalized-sound product, a Bluetooth-compatible wireless mobile phone earpiece called the Personal Sound System (PSS). The product and the Company's Personalization systems are currently being demonstrated at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"The Personal Sound System establishes a totally new category for the Personalization of sound to individual users and the environments in which they listen. It is completely different from typical noise compensation or sound enhancement systems," said Sound ID founder, Chairman and CEO, Dr. Rodney Perkins. An internationally known ear surgeon, Dr. Perkins is also a founder of Resound Corporation. "The PSS is a small, ergonomic, and easy-to-use wireless mobile phone earpiece that also provides a more enjoyable and intelligible listening experience for everyone," Perkins added.

The Sound ID device leverages all the benefits of Bluetooth technology, which allow consumers to use the earpiece wirelessly with any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. To improve performance and utility even further, the Company has integrated a high performance digital signal processor to digitally enhance the sound quality.

"Our core technology rests on an understanding of the human auditory system, particularly the physiology of the cochlea and the effects of acoustic processing on the perception of sound," Dr. Perkins said. "Given our team's knowledge of signal processing and human hearing, we have developed an innovative way to increase the intelligibility of speech signals and help individuals derive the highest quality sound from their mobile phones."

How Sound ID Personalizes Bluetooth Wireless Mobile Phones

Personalized Digital Sound increases speech intelligibility and the quality of sound for all listeners, providing benefit through Personalization and Adaptive Noise Compensation. The signal processing that enables these benefits is implemented on the low-power, high performance programmable digital signal processor that has been integrated into the small, lightweight Personal Sound System.

Everybody hears differently. Throughout our lives, progressive hearing changes make it more difficult to hear in challenging (or noisy) situations and even in quiet. Personalization of sound uses the signal processing embedded on the DSP of the Personal Sound System to tune incoming sound to an individual's personal hearing profile, accommodating for hearing changes that limit the perception of sound.

To enable consumers to rapidly create their hearing profile, Sound ID has developed the proprietary EarPrintTM hearing evaluation system, an Internet-based system that can establish your hearing profile in minutes. At the conclusion of the EarPrint evaluation, the consumer's profile is automatically transferred to the Personal Sound System, and the consumer can choose to store their profile for future use. The Personal Sound System then uses this profile to adjust its signal processing to maximize the intelligibility of the mobile phone signal to the user.

Adaptive Noise Compensation benefits every listener, and complements the Personalization of sound to an individual's hearing. Background noise alters an individual's perception of sound very similarly to hearing changes. While our hearing changes slowly, background noise changes constantly. To compensate for the interference of this ever-changing background noise, ANC constantly analyzes environmental noise. The ANC processing then rapidly adapts the audio signal to optimize the clarity, intelligibility and comfortable loudness of speech for every listener as noise that surrounds the listener changes. This automatic function provides benefit without the need for the user to change the volume control on the earpiece.

This method of adjusting the audio signal to background noise is different from solutions that try to block or cancel out background noise. Adaptive Noise Compensation adapts the desired audio signal, the person's voice on the other end of a phone call, to preserve clarity for the Personal Sound System wearer in noisy environments like automobiles, city streets, shopping centers and airports. The background noise is unchanged, but the PSS wearer will be able to hear more clearly because the sound output of the PSS will be adapted to compensate for the noise.

Form Factor, Wireless Connectivity, and Availability

The Personal Sound System combines a sleek, intuitive design that complements its uncompromising acoustic performance. The earpiece weighs just 11 grams, has 3 to 4 hours of talk time and 70 hours of standby time.

Bluetooth is the low-power, short-range networking protocol that the Personal Sound System uses to connect to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Bluetooth is an international standard for wirelessly connecting portable electronics such as mobile phones, handheld devices, mobile computers, and peripherals such as headsets. Bluetooth devices communicate by wireless signals within a 30-foot range, and do not need a line-of-sight connection.