BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA
The sound of your partner grinding their teeth, the sound of your tone-deaf roommate singing in the shower, the piercing squeal of the subway slamming its brakes juxtaposed by the guy beside me playing swag music from his phone speaker. These are the sounds every morning I would rather not hear. And soon I won’t have to.
Doppler Labs has invented earbuds that can customize the sounds of the world around you. As CEO and co-founder, Noah Craft put it in an interview, “We are aiming to use tech to enhance life.”
Here earbuds aren’t anything like your typical noise-cancelling headphones. The sound that you hear is not pre-recorded. Rather, the earbuds are more like computers, a mic that takes the sound waves and puts them through a processor called a codec. It does this all in 30-millionths of a second, so by controlling the computer through an application on your phone you can change what you hear real-time.
Real-time environment volume control.
Photo By: DOPPLER LABS
Gone are the days of going to a concert in a pocket sized venue where the cranked PA system leaves you with ringing ears after listening to your co-workers’s Iron Maiden cover band that you really only went to see out of professional courtesy.
Live EQ of the sound you’re hearing.
Photo By: DOPPLER LABS
Five sliders allow you to change the bass, mids and treble of any concert you’ll ever attend. You will have a private studio in your ears and thus be able to customize the jaded sound technician’s shitty mix. There is nothing worse than being at a concert when your favourite chorus hits and not being able to hear the voice of the singer you actually paid to see, and instead being able to hear the nasally whine of that same tone-deaf roommate I referenced earlier.
Apply audio effects to the real world.
Photo By: DOPPLER LABS
Here allows you to add reverb, flange, delay, and fuzz to the sound that you are hearing. These effects would be particularly useful in live music situations. Are you at a cottage when your drunken friend decides to pick up an acoustic guitar to salivate through a Jack Daniel’s-fuelled rendition of Wonderwall? Put on the reverb setting and you will instantly be sitting at Carnegie hall.
Here has been attracting serious attention raising $17 million in its Series B Investment, with notable investors and music heavyweights like Live Nation Entertainment and Universal Music Group. After a recent crowdfunding campaign, Doppler Labs raised an additional $635,000 from 2,855 backers. They surpassed their original goal of $250,000 in two days.
The only criticism so far comes from John Lagomarsino who stated that when he spoke while wearing them he could hear his own voice echoing through the bones of his face. It is similar to putting your fingers in your ear holes and speaking. But if you’re that guy that likes talking through a concert then seriously fuck you.
When Doppler Labs Here earbuds hit the market, they will go for the modest $250.
Sources: thump.vice.com, businessinsider.com
