Open-source AI platform for ear-based sensing applications
11 comments
·May 1, 2025Etheryte
Despite their recent massive flops in the AI department, in a way this makes me excited about Apple's prospects in this regard in the long term. These are bigger than AirPods, but they're not _that_ much bigger. Shave off the USB-C connector for wireless charging, swap the battery out to accommodate for the shape and you're already pretty close. Apple is really good at fitting things into the smallest form factor possible, and given they could offload all the compute to the iPhone which already comes with some pretty good chips, this could lead to some really exciting tech in the long run. They need to get their act together before that can happen though.
djtango
I'm probably not the target customer but could someone ELI5 what this is for?
Swain123
I was actively looking for something like this and had found this last week. Pine buds pro is another option that gives you quite a lot of control with access to the firmware. But I cant seem to get my hands on any of them. Either the custom duty doubles the price or it is too costly.
Nonetheless open-source ear buds is a big need for the engineering and hacker community.
victorbjorklund
This is pretty cool. Crazy price though (guess more of a devkit). Hopefully this will get adopted by others like Apple.
MeteorMarc
What is the weight of one of these ear buds? I guess too much weight can easily give you head aches. On the other hand, it seems from the pics that further miniaturization is possible.
riedel
My boss actually switched to wearing them all day dogfooding the thing (I work in the same lab: also as a disclosure). For a long time a downside was the audio, but the new version has a really nice driver and amazing DSP optimizations. The colleagues also conducted wearability studies and I also can confirm (having participated) that they are really walearable. Don't have the numbers but they are not really heavier than other in ears from my impression.
rpaddock
I see "Ear Canal Pressure Sensor" is listed on the website.
I know that NASA was doing some research on using the tympanic membrane to measure intercranial pressure. Ask around, please, and find out if anyone has considered that application. We really do need a better way to detect cerebrospinal leak (CSF Leaks). A CSF Leak was a significant contribution to my late wife's death.
riedel
I will forward that to my colleagues, who are looking constantly for new applications (particularly in health tech). The sensor exists since Toby's paper on measuring tensor timpani muscle activity [0] .
jpalomaki
Starter bundle price: 2348€
riedel
It is fully open HW packed with not so cheap sensors and also a bit tricky to assemble. Target group for assembled devices are mostly other research labs. My colleague who developed the thing actually is thinking about a cheap version. However, the USP are all the sensors.
This is very cool project I need to say. I really like all the things that you build on top of that. I had no idea about the BMA550 accelerometer usage to detect speech and silences, it's very very cool.
Regarding the IMU, it mentioned the MM-FIT for workouts, but I checked the code and it's not used at all, no?
Good job, awesome product :-)