With help from crowdfunding on the Virgin Business Voom website, a company called LimitEar is launching HearAngel®, an app for your smartphone that allows you to monitor how you and your kids listen to music, and lets you know when you or family members are in danger of overexposure to noise. The HearAngel app is designed to intervene to reduce sound to prevent you from exceeding your Daily Sound Allowance (DSA).
One in five adolescents or teens has hearing loss–mostly high-frequency hearing loss–possibly related to noise exposures from earphones, headsets, and other sources.
In light of recent news reports on studies showing that teens are being exposed to dangerous sound levels through earphones, headphones, and in a range of environments, the arrival of this app seems timely.
LimitEar was formed five years ago to develop hearing dose management technologies for professional headphone users. The company’s technology, HDM®Pro, protects users in line with Noise at Work Regulations. The technology, which is being utilized for the HearAngel phone app, is said to have no negative effect on sound quality and has been selected for use in military, live events, and broadcast applications. The company reports that it has contracts with Sennheiser and Meridian/ACS and has been selected by Racal Esterline to be used in a new aviation headset.
Why Use an App That Monitors Headphone Use?
According to HearAngel developer and LimitEar founder, Stephen Wheatley, children, teens and adults use headphones more and more in our daily lives, and if left unchecked, this increased usage could cause irreversible damage to our ears. The hearing damage from noise exposure is caused by the complex relationship between how long and how loud you listen. HearAngel is designed to work out this relationship for you, and help protect your whole family’s hearing.
How the App Works to Protect You from Hearing Damage
The App Notifies You When You or Your Children Are Reaching the Limit for Allowable Noise
HearAngel has “Inform” and “Manage” modes that can provide you with a green, amber, or red status to let you know how close you or your children are to reaching your daily limit of allowable noise. The app will give you a warning message when you’re about to move from one mode to the next.
The HearAngel app is designed to be easy to use. After you have downloaded it, you need to enter your name with your headphone type, and you are “good to go.” The company says the app is fully compatible with all wearable technology, allowing you to monitor your listening with just a glance at your wrist. Importantly, you can observe the listening patterns of your children and other family members by syncing your phone or wearable with their devices.
Source: LimitEar/HearAngel; LinkedIn; VMBVoom.com
Image credits: LimitEar/HearAngel; Dreamstime
It is 1 year later and still not in the appstore. I am a bit dissapointed to be honest.
Judging from the noise coming from kids’ headphones, there is a lot of need for this kind of application. But does the daily sound allowance also look at the frequency of sounds? Because from what I understand, it’s possible to hurt your ears for certain tones. If the app looks at the average sound level it can miss a peak at a certain frequency (like bass). Not saying it’s bad, just that this needs to be looked at.
Steve, where can I find the App? It doesn’t appear when I search Apple’s App Store.
Hi Simon,
It looks like you have to go to the HearAngel.com website and click the “Pre-order” button in the upper right-hand corner. Fill out the form and you will be emailed as soon as the HearAngel app is available at the Apple App Store. (http://hearangel.com/) Hope that helps!
Thanks Stephen, this is exactly what I wanted to know.
I am wondering, how this app knows the sound efficiency of the headphones?
Anna, As your question suggests, the sound efficiency (the impedance and sensitivity) varies from headphone to headphone so we will provide settings for different makes and models that takes their efficiency into account. I hope that helps?