Jak Apple developed the world's first comprehensive set of hearing protection features

Modern audio laboratory Apple in Cupertino, California, supports the innovative work of local acoustic engineers. They use the lab to conduct user studies in various listening rooms and to test new features in anechoic chambers that completely absorb sound wave reflections and isolate external noise.

Audio The laboratory is the place where all products from the Applu, which have speakers or microphones. It is also a center of long-term collaboration across various teams that work within Applu participate in the creation of new revolutionary hearing protection function in headphones AirPods Pro 2. A comprehensive new feature set available today as a free software update¹, helps miniMinimize exposure to ambient noise with Hearing Protection, offers the ability to test your hearing with a special home test, and transforms headphones for mild to moderate hearing loss AirPods Pro in a full-fledged hearing aid.

Gallery

Apple-Audio-Lab-Fantasia-Lab-02

Apple-Audio-Lab-HATS

Apple-Audio-Lab-Hearing-Test

Apple-Audio-Lab-Space-Echo-Room

Apple-Audio-Lab-Fantasia-Lab-01

Enter the gallery

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 1,5 billion people worldwide live with hearing loss. "Hearing loss affects people in all regions and countries, yet it is often unrecognized. Hearing is an essential part of communication for many people and is an important factor in health and well-being," said Dr. Shelly Chadha, Technical Lead for Hearing at the World Health Organization. "Technology can play an important role in raising awareness and providing options for those affected by hearing loss."

“Since everyone hears differently, we have created an innovative and comprehensive solution that can protect hearing. It works in a way that is easy to use and can be adapted to a wide range of needs. Adaptation is especially important because hearing loss can affect anyone, regardless of age or technical skill level,” explains Dr. Sumbul Desai, Vice President Applu for health. “So the Hearing Aid feature should be so intuitive that when you use it, it should feel like you’re relying on your own senses, only amplified. We knew the result could literally change lives for many people and has the power to democratize access to treatment for something that affects more than a billion people worldwide.”

Our engineers used highly specialized facilities to implement this breakthrough feature audio laboratories.

“From the quietest audible sounds for the Hearing Test feature to conversations in noisy restaurants for the Hearing Aid feature to loud concerts for the Hearing Protection feature, we can bring it all to our acoustic devices using calibrated soundscapes from around the world. We can also perform precise acoustic measurements at the touch of a button,” says Kuba Mazur, Lead Engineer Applu for hearing protection in the acoustic engineering department.

The Longwave anechoic chamber was built on its own foundation, which is isolated from the rest of the laboratory by springs, allowing for precise sound measurements without the interference of noise and vibration. The chamber houses a custom-made loudspeaker and microphone array that can measure the transfer functions associated with the human head, in other words how sound interacts with the human body. The loudspeaker and microphone array make this a truly unique space with a range of uses, including the development of AirPods, iPhones and HomePods.

“Human ears are natural amplifiers, often asymmetrical, and each ear is uniquely shaped,” Mazur continues. “When sound reaches one ear before the other, there is a time lag in the perception of sound. We need to understand this phenomenon in order to create experiences that accurately represent the sounds around you. In our anechoic chambers, we achieve this by sitting a person in a swivel chair and putting on headphones.” AirPods Pro, which will capture sound.”

On the other hand audio The Fantasia laboratory is located in the laboratory. In order to ensure the highest quality of products from Applu uses a spherical array of 50 speakers that simulate hundreds of real-world soundscapes—such as a shopping mall, a busy street, or a plane ride—in a tightly controlled, evenly distributed sound field. To fine-tune and validate the Hearing Aid feature, a large group of study participants with varying hearing levels were placed in this controlled environment and given a speech-in-noise test. The test involved the participant sitting on a chair in the middle of a room with a complex soundscape, such as a noisy restaurant. The participant was then asked to repeat the words of the main speaker and distinguish them from background conversations.

“In this lab, we try to replicate reality. We need to make sure our features meet the needs of users in the environments they go through every day, like shopping malls or busy restaurants,” Mazur says. “We used outside sound to fine-tune and validate features like Hearing Aid, Conversation Enhancement, and Throughput Mode that we’re integrating into the headphones.” Air"Subs."

In addition, they are in audio three professional laboratories are permanently installed audiometric booths – the kind that patients typically encounter when having their hearing tested by a doctor. For internal testing purposes, a team of engineers collaborated with audiologs in the cabins with which he carried out thousands audiometric clinical tests and software hearing tests before moving the new Hearing Test feature into the clinical trial validation phase.

Design is also one of the fundamental elements of the user experience and played an important role during user testing of new features. One of the key factors was the course of the test itself. The team had to come up with such design solutions that would simplify the hearing test and hearing aid setup. There was also a need to make the test results more understandable than the usual series of numbers one encounters when visiting a doctor.

“Within our health features, we focus on clarity and making it easy for users to understand.” max"immediately accommodating," explains Heather Daniel, production manager at the design studio Apple, which helps manage the progress of all health function design work. “Perhaps the Hearing test function. We realized that for many people this might be their very first hearing test, so we had to make everything as simple as possible.” This simplification required teams across Applem have worked together throughout the development of the software to meet clinical testing requirements and provide customers with the best possible product.

“Think about how much innovation it required, how much technology needed to be packed into Air"The pods and the amount of effort and attention to detail that went into creating these complex software features," Mazur continues. "We had to collaborate with a variety of teams—including software and hardware engineering, design, health, accessibility, clinical operations, regulatory, and human factors—to ensure the highest quality and best user experience possible."

Comprehensive hearing protection features in headphones AirThe Pods Pro 2 is the latest testament to the effort Applu to help users on their personal journey to health. For many of our team members, this is the epitome of what is possible when innovation is combined with a passion for delivering useful hardware and software that helps improve the everyday lives of all users.

"The fact that people can use AirThe fact that they can use them to protect their hearing at concerts or the fact that they can use their features to gain insights into the state of their hearing over time means that Air"Pods do exactly what their users want or need," adds Mazur. "AirPods are a real interface for our ears.”