Stephen Wheatley

Field of Expertise

Enabling wireless headphone manufacturers to provide smart hearing safeguarding features in their headphones (the term is used to mean all types of headphone, headset, earpiece etc.) so that they can meet new safety standards and EU’s General Product Safety Regulations and users can manage their sound exposure to help them avoid permanent hearing damage.

Expertise

Increasingly headphone manufacturers are coming under pressure from safety standards and regulations, such as the EU’s General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR), to provide their customers with useable, simple to understand information about their sound exposure.

Problem - Our hearing has not evolved to tolerate the levels of sound exposure that our ears routinely experience, and those exposure levels have already reached critical levels. There is increasing evidence that this is permanently damaging our hearing, a recent survey in Japan shows that a group of biologically 20 year old women had the hearing function more typical of 40 year olds. The majority of their exposure was from headphone use.

Solution – Introduction of safety standards and regulations that require headphone manufacturers to build smart hearing safeguarding systems in headphone, that measure the users sound exposure and gives them information on safe listening levels, warns them when exposure is risky and provides automatic protection if that is what they want. It should also provide Parental Controls so parents can manage their childrens exposure level and their listening period.  

Why Us - LimitEar has spent the last twelve years safeguarding the hearing of headphone users in the work place to prevent them from suffering this type of permanent hearing damage whilst enabling their employers to meet their obligations under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations. We are approved suppliers to The BBC, NATO, The Metropolitan Police, The Canadian Government and the Royal Netherlands military amongst many others.

We are using the expertise and IP we have gained to help wireless headphone manufacturers deliver smart hearing safeguarding features to their users that meet the safety standards. HearAngel, our smart hearing safeguarding, safety standard compliant, embedded software, is licensed to wireless headphone, often in partnership with chip manufacturers and or other software providers.