The market for headphones is expected to grow at a moderately steady pace from 2024 to 2029. The market earned a global revenue of US$18.0 billion in 2024. It will grow at a pace of nearly 2.4% in the next five years. In 2024, each accounts for approximately 0.2 pieces in the Headphones market in 2024.
Over the years, the purpose of headphones has evolved. However, the core purpose has remained the same: canceling noise. And now, this objective of headphones as noise-canceling devices has a fresh boost by embracing AI.
AI Headphones Create Sound Bubble Effective Over Few Feets
A University of Washington team of researchers has come up with a unique headphone solution. It has developed a prototype that helps listeners create a ‘sound bubble.’ The AI algorithms – combined with a headphone prototype – result in a solution that allows wearers to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet.
Source: University of Washington
The device is capable of quieting voices and sounds outside the bubble by an average of 49 decibels.
While explaining the unique capabilities that the solution could bring, senior author Shyam Gollakota, a UW professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, had the following to say:
“Our AI system can learn the distance for each sound source in a room and process this in real-time, within 8 milliseconds, on the hearing device itself.”
The researchers were cautious about keeping the solution real, practical, and feasible. They created the prototype with headphones that are commercially available around us. First, they affixed six small microphones across the headband for the team’s neural network to track different sounds reaching each microphone. The neural network runs on a small onboard embedded computer that stays attached to the headphones.
Once this entire system is put in action, it suppresses the sounds coming from outside the bubble and then plays back and slightly amplifies the sounds inside the bubble.
Training the AI-based system requires innovative thinking. The researchers came up with an ingenious solution, where they put the headphones on a mannequin head, and a robotic platform rotated the head while a moving speaker played noises coming from different distances.
Apart from the mannequin system, the team also gathered data through human users in 22 different indoor environments, including offices and living spaces. The purpose was to train the system to create sound bubbles in different environments. They did not have a readily available distance-based sound dataset collected in the real world, and that’s why the ingenious solution proved effective.
Explaining why the method and experiment worked, the researchers pointed towards two core reasons. The first reason was that the wearer’s head could reflect sounds, helping the neural net distinguish sounds from various distances. Second, the AI algorithm could efficiently compare different sounds with different frequencies to determine the distance of any sound source.
In explaining the breakthrough this research could achieve, Gollakota said:
“Do we need a big separation to create this ‘sound bubble’? What we showed here is that we don’t. We were able to do it with just the microphones on the headphones and in real-time, which was quite surprising.”
Soon, the researchers will work to ensure that the technology works seamlessly on hearing aids and noise-canceling earbuds. As of now, the system only knows how to work indoors, and getting clean training audio is not that difficult. Future success would require the researchers to develop a new strategy for positioning the microphones.
Headphones are products that have many globally leading tech companies involved in production. Solutions, as we see above, are regularly tried and tested by the R&D departments of these companies. While creating an AI-powered sound bubble is a unique feat, solutions exist that leverage AI to cancel noise. In the following segments, we discuss a few such commercial solutions that are available from the market leaders.
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1. Sony (SONY -0.29%)
Here, we will talk about a specific solution by Sony that is representative of the company’s R&D efforts in this space. The solution is Sony’s wireless noise-cancelling stereo headset, MDR-ZX780DC.
The noise canceling function of this solution involves a noise canceling circuit that senses outside noise with built-in microphones and sends an equal-but-opposite canceling signal to the headset.
The user is free to opt for the noise-cancelling function. All the user needs to do is press and hold the Power button for about 2 seconds when the headset is turned off to turn on the headset. When the noise canceling function is turned on, the indicator (green) lights up, and the noise canceling mode is set to NC Mode B.
Now, let us look specifically into the use of AI in these headphones. Here, AI noise canceling is a function that automatically selects one of the noise canceling modes to provide the most effective noise canceling mode by immediately analyzing ambient sound components.
Within 3 seconds, the AI-powered noise-canceling headset starts analyzing ambient sound components. While the analyzing mode is on, the sound volume from the headphones stays lowered, and the indicator keeps flashing a green light.
The solution has kept it flexible by offering three noise-cancelling mode types:
- NC Mode A
- NC Mode B
- NC Mode C
The first mode reduces noise containing a large amount of middle to low-frequency sounds, while NC Mode B effectively reduces a large amount of super low-frequency sounds. NC Mode B is effective in reducing background noise heard mainly on a bus or a train.
Finally, NC Mode C is meant to reduce the noise coming from a relatively quiet and wide range of frequency sounds. This mode is good for reducing background noise present in an office environment, such as those coming from computers, copiers, etc.
Sony Group Corporation (SONY -0.29%)
On May 14th, 2024, Sony Group published its FY 2023 consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended on March 31st, 2024. FY23 consolidated sales were 13 trillion 20.8 billion yen, a new record high. Consolidated operating income was 1 trillion 208.8 billion yen, net income was 970.6 billion yen, and consolidated adjusted EBITDA was 1 trillion 818.0 billion yen.
2. Apple (AAPL +0.1%)
Another company that has made great progress in this space is Apple. Its AirPods Pro2 comes with up to 2X more active noise cancellation to offer adaptive audio that tailors noise control to the wearer’s environment. Moreover, it offers an immersive sound quality with personalized spatial audio.
The advanced audio performance of Apple’s product draws from its in-house H2 Chip that works with the driver and amplifier to create crisp, high-definition sound. The solution runs on its computational algorithms to deliver noise cancellation, sophisticated 3-D sound, efficient battery life, and imperceivable end-to-end audio latency.
One of the most unique features of the H2 chip is its adaptation algorithm, which can process sound more quickly and tune audio at the precise moment of hearing. The solution is capable of rendering every detail to the wearer’s specific ear shape, resulting in immersive, higher-fidelity sound.
The solution has an inward-facing microphone compatible with voice-enhancement algorithms for recognizing and articulating the user’s voice. The result is in the form of completely natural phone and video calls.
The H2 chip works in sync with a custom-built driver and amplifier to offer lower playback distortion. What the user hears – in turn – are deeper bass and crisper highs across a range of volume levels.
The noise-canceling parameters achieved by Apple are significantly well accomplished. It quiets up to 2X with pro-level active noise cancellation. The driver and acoustic algorithms can remove more unwanted noise.
The transparency mode of the Apple Airpods leverages the capability of its H2 chips to minimize loud noise intensity, including those generated from sources like sirens or power tools. It can reduce noise at 48,000 times per second.
The voice isolation feature can improve phone call quality in conditions that are loud or windy. Its advanced computational audio can reduce background noise while isolating and clarifying the sound of the speaker’s voice for the person who is on the listening end.
The machine learning-driven personalized volume feature can understand listening preferences in different environments – adapting sounds based on the user’s patterns over time.
Overall, Apple’s noise cancellation solution is geared towards making the device’s audio and sound quality more personalized. And it leverages AI and ML to a great extent.
On October 31st, 2024, Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter ended September 28th, 2024. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $94.9 billion, up 6 percent year over year, and quarterly diluted earnings per share of $0.97.
3. Bose
Finally, we shall look at the company that has become synonymous with premium quality sound: Bose!
Relevantly, in August 2024, Bose formed a partnership with Bragi, the pioneer of AI headphones. The aim was to deliver cutting-edge, turn-key licensable audio wearable solutions and simplify the process of building high-quality audio products for global brands.
There were three objectives for this collaboration to deliver: The first was noise cancellation. Bose is well-known for its ANC technology, which stands for Active Noise Cancellation. It can eliminate unwanted noise, ensuring an undisturbed listening experience, whether in a bustling urban environment or during a long flight.
Second was the aspect of immersive audio. In this, the product solution could deliver a wider and more spacious soundstage, resulting in a layered, multi-dimensional listening experience.
Finally, Bose’s AI voice technology spectrum could deliver enhanced voice clarity with clear and crisp communication in noisy environments. The outcome makes the sound ideal for telecom applications, conferencing, and more.
While speaking about the partnership, Nicholas Smith, chief strategy officer at Bose, had the following to say:
“By partnering with Bragi, we extend Bose’s impact further in the wearable audio market, delivering our renowned audio experiences to more people all over the globe.”
On the other hand, Nikolaj Hviid, CEO at Bragi, said:
“Integrating Bose’s state-of-the-art audio technologies with Bragi will enable brands to offer unparalleled audio experiences and provide a competitive advantage for headphones.”
As early as November 2024, Bose launched its product line, the Ultra Open Earbuds, that play private audio while allowing in outside noises to keep users aware.
Overall, Bose’s innovations in the field of noise cancellation thrives on its use of microphones both inside and outside the earcups to monitor the sounds around the wearer and instantly produce an opposite signal to cancel them out. With adjustable noise canceling, the user can control how much – or how little – of the outside noise one hears.
The Future of Noise Cancellation Devices
With the growing hustle and bustle in our modern urban world, noise cancellation is something on which the audio industry will thrive. Keeping its importance in mind, technologists across the world have been trying consistently to make it as sophisticated as possible. And to make them sophisticated, what could be better than embracing AI?
In May 2024, the MIT Technology Review reported a new prototype AI system for noise-cancelling headphones. The system aimed at solving one drawback of these noise cancellation devices: their tendency to muffle sounds indiscriminately. The solution came in the form of a feature called Target Speech Hearing. This feature empowered users with the ability to select a person whose voice will remain audible even when all other sounds are canceled out. To activate the Target Speech Hearing system, the wearer holds down a button on the headphones for several seconds while facing the person to be focused on.
The use of bubbles to cancel noise is something that niche companies like Silentium have also been experimenting with for some time now. Silentium has developed a Quiet Bubble™ family, a concept in Silentium to reduce the disturbing noise no matter what the sources are.
To achieve its objective, the company synthesizes the physical characteristics of unwanted noise fields in a desired zone of quiet. It is achieved by a multichannel algorithm that allows controlling the sound field produced by an array of loudspeakers.
The Silentium solutions apply to a range of scenarios. There is a generic quiet bubble, active headrests to create a quiet zone, and an active headset. The company is capable of designing and building a fully dedicated ANC product to the user’s exact needs. It can build quiet zones inside busy trains and airport terminals for passengers to use as a place of peace and relative privacy.
Altogether, noise cancellation – through bubbles and more – has been gaining traction across industries, including tools and devices used at home, automotive solutions, industrial noise-generating equipment, transportation, and more. It is the next step forward!
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