AUMEO has a clear goal – to tailor sound so every ear can hear its best
The quality of any tailoring boils down to 2 parts: accurate measurements (Aumeogram) and expert fitting (Tailored Audio). In this post I’d like to focus on Aumeogram, our hearing measurement technology. Oh and yes you guessed it – it’s a word play that combines the words AUMEO and Audiogram.
So what does an Aumeogram look like?
A typical Aumeogram, showing the hearing abilities of both ears across the low, mid & high tones
In a nutshell, an Aumeogram is a “report card” on how well your ears can hear across the low, mid and high tones. The diagram is shows 2 semi-circles, one for the left and one for the right. Each line represents a tone. Within each tone you can usually see 2 colors. The purple-pinkish color is what your ear can hear for each tone, and the blue stuff is what AUMEO will add back to the audio, using its clinically verified algorithms.
By adding the missing audio back to your hearing, you can finally hear the complete picture.
Listening to one-size-fits-all music
Enjoying Tailored Audio, based on the user’s Aumeogram
Speaking of “clinically verified” (yes we are geeks and we are not going to apologize for that), we have shown that Aumeogram is up to 97% as accurate as a real hearing test. You can read about the details in this peer reviewed medical paper, published by the International Journal of Audiology. (Not. Apologizing.)
Aren’t we a bit too obsessed with our hearing test’s accurate?
You have probably heard the phrase “garbage in, garbage out”. At the end of the day, no amount of magic can fix a poor measurement. Therefore, our co-founder Prof. Andrew van Hasselt decided that our 1st priority is to make to the best hearing test we could. After months of research we decided to develop a Pure-Tone Audiometry (PTA) test with a user interface designed for modern devices. The result is Aumeogram – the most accurate and easy-to-use hearing test a consumer can get anywhere.
The team then worked hard on distilling their years of clinical experience into a simple-to-use yet accurate app. For example, the more number of measurements are taken, the more accurate the results will be. However, at some point the user will get bored and simply give up.
Balancing Act
In other words, balancing speed and accuracy is key. This means countless hours fussing over user interface details to. The tones that we test for, the colors that we use, the “volume knob” that we put in the app – these are all the result after thousands of testing sessions.
Similarly, we had to make smart choices in things that the user cannot even see. A great example is designing the testing protocol. One key decision was to employ as many of the industry standards recommended by the British Society of Audiology (2004) as possible. As a result, our Aumeogram is based on decades of sound audiology research and practices. In addition, building on world-class standards makes it easy for clinical verification down the road.
97% as accurate as a real hearing test
Our very first clinical trial’s goal to find out the accuracy of the Aumeogram. We invited 100 people to the Audiology Clinic of the Price of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. First we took a a standard hearing test to establish their audiogram, or hearing profile. After that, we created their Aumeogram using an iPhone with the standard Apple earbuds in a quiet room. The results showed that our Aumeogram is 97% as accurate as a professional hearing test.
Rock solid foundation
It took more than 2 years to develop, but our Aumeogram technology gives us a rock solid foundation to build upon. Thanks to this effort, we are confident that AUMEO can help each person hear their best.