5 ms·

Developer here! Hoping to get some feedback if possible!

michaelmior 12y ago
What about the need to be woken up by external events which aren't connected to your smart phone? The immediate example I think of is a fire alarm.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  Our plans are to tie into the greater smart home! Think Nest, smart baby monitors, smart security systems, etc. We've already been talking with a number of OEM's like Samsung who want us to use their ecosystem :) But for this V1, we can't effectively block out a fire alarm.. those are really loud.. We can block out maybe 70dB max with our device whereas fire alarms are generally much much louder!
  - darkmighty 12y ago
    Was active noise cancellation technically infeasible for this product?
    - d4n13ll33 12y ago
      Battery limitations :( And cost. It's also not the best at blocking out the sudden transient sounds that are responsible for jarring people out of sleep. Passive noise reduction + noise masking are much more effective for that!
RickHull 12y ago
My biggest concern generally is in-ear comfort. Short of molded customs, every in-ear headphone I've tried causes canal soreness within an hour or two, including the "sound delivery straw" designs with delicate foam or rubber surrounds. Secondarily, it looks like the current model sticks out, causing pressure if one's head is resting on its side. That said, my ear canal soreness is largely due to canal deformation relating to jaw movement. Perhaps this is not an issue for sleeping. Also, foam earplugs (compared to earphones) are not uncomfortable for me.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  There are some people that have very differently shaped ears that we simply can't account for with a single design. Can I ask which part of your ear got irritated so that I can make a note? http://www.rudyard.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/external-ear-anatomy.jpg http://www.rudyard.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/external-e... Was it the tragus?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- foxylad 12y ago
  I do get canal soreness from foam plugs. I've recently found that the silicone blob ear plugs are much more comfortable (perhaps because they stay in the outer ear), and are also more effective at sound reduction. I guess one of the challenges for this project will be handling the variations in ear geometry.
  - d4n13ll33 12y ago
    Some people do like the silicone tree design earplugs more than the foam. It varies. We are considering providing some of those as a stretch goal! Yeah, the variations of ears is definitely the hardest challenge in our product
chockablock 12y ago
I really like this idea! Combining isolation and masking in a standalone in-ear device is very clever. Personally I'm less interested in the ability to be interrupted by alerts from a smartphone. When I'm sleeping I want to sleep. When I'm working, I can get vibration alerts from my phone. Have you considered a 'dumb' version with just pre-recorded masking audio and no wireless features?
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  Thanks! :D Haven't considered that :/ I would have to ask around to see if there is significant interest enough to merit the engineering costs to make a cheaper version :/ Thanks for the input though!
  - bashinator 12y ago
    Combined isolation and masking is a great feature! You might consider working with the author of Noise Machines[0] for a later iteration. That site is a lifesaver in a noisy office. [0] http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php
bashinator 12y ago
Your site is down at the moment, so let me ask - as a musician, what do these get me over Etymotic's earplugs? I have a $160 pair of custom-molded plugs with replaceable filters that go from -5 to -20dB attenuation.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  They're meant more for sleep! Musician earplugs offer a completely different value proposition in keeping the frequency response the same while reducing dB. Our earplugs' purpose is to get maximum dB isolation so that your sleep isn't disturbed!
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
Altaer 12y ago
Are the batteries going to be replaceable? I worry when the battery ages it won't last through the night. At 10 hours of charge maximum, if the battery loses just 20% of its max capacity, I would run risk of the battery not making it through the night.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  No they aren't. We have 500 cycles (I believe, maybe more if we change the charge rate) of our battery before it goes to 80% of max capacity, which is still 8 hours. Even if you were to use the same device for years, the sound masking would just turn off prematurely in the night and make sure it preserves enough juice to sound the alarm in the morning
tbranyen 12y ago
Heya! Just backed the project, seems super promising! As a developer have you tested these while coding? I've tried rainymooods which works alright, but I'm wondering now if this wouldn't be more effective (because of the cancelling). Also I may have missed this, but do you have any ideas with regards to motion sensoring or opening the API? It'd be great to buy a motion sensor compatible with Android and hook into the wearables to alert if someone (or in the case of camping something) is nearby.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  Cool thanks! :D I use a wired version all the time and I love how I can zone in and ignore the things going on around me! Motion sensing would be a bit of an expensive add-in. :( We would want to open up the API, thinking about it but we're a little worried because we don't know if there will be much application as our feature set is very tailored to the use case that we've defined :/
  - tbranyen 12y ago
    Well this is what I mean. You say expensive; I say damn cheap : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/192833321/pebblebee-the-most-versatile-ios-android-bluetooth https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/192833321/pebblebee-the... This is why you need to open up the API in whatever form you can. Developers are going to want to use your tool in ways you aren't thinking of.
    - d4n13ll33 12y ago
      I guess we're just hesitant to add extra hardware now because fitting everything initially was a bit of a pain. True on the opening up of the API - we'll most likely end up opening it up!
Tarrosion 12y ago
If you can deliver on the promise, this would be worth way more than $150 to me. Probably more than $500. I'm a light sleeper and I live in a city - not a great combination. But I am for now a little skeptical: - I have never used a pair of earbuds or earplugs which are comfortable for more than ~20 minutes. This includes soft foam earbuds and plugs, small-sized musician earplugs (I have tiny ears), and earplugs custom fit by an audiologist. - Even that custom fit pair (which I bought for sleeping) doesn't work for sleeping: I'm a side sleeper, and sleeping on my side applies a little pressure to the ear canal. It's enough that those custom fit earplugs don't fit right when I'm on my side. - Those custom fit earplugs are not even close to mirror images of each other. It's not obvious to me that the same piece of foam can be appropriate for both ears, no matter how deformable it is. My main point of feedback: focus on comfort - specifically sleeping comfort for people with odd ears and odd sleeping positions - over everything else. I would pay piles of money for earplugs comfortable enough to sleep in with say 10dB reduction, far better that than not-quite-comfy enough smart earplugs with 70dB reduction. Similarly, I would happily sacrifice battery life, aesthetics, cost, smart features, etc. for comfort.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  Unfortunately, there is no physical way that we can be significantly more comfortable than soft foam earplugs as we have to house electronics and a battery inside :/ Have you tried good quality soft earplugs? Maybe some Hearos Ultimate Softness? There are some really bad earplugs that are uncomfortable that we will be more comfortable than. But if you've used good earplugs and found them uncomfortable, I'm sorry to say, but there's no way we'll be able to make it anymore comfortable than that :(

What about the need to be woken up by external events which aren't connected to your smart phone? The immediate example I think of is a fire alarm.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
Our plans are to tie into the greater smart home! Think Nest, smart baby monitors, smart security systems, etc. We've already been talking with a number of OEM's like Samsung who want us to use their ecosystem :) But for this V1, we can't effectively block out a fire alarm.. those are really loud.. We can block out maybe 70dB max with our device whereas fire alarms are generally much much louder!
- darkmighty 12y ago
  Was active noise cancellation technically infeasible for this product?
  - d4n13ll33 12y ago
    Battery limitations :( And cost. It's also not the best at blocking out the sudden transient sounds that are responsible for jarring people out of sleep. Passive noise reduction + noise masking are much more effective for that!

RickHull 12y ago

My biggest concern generally is in-ear comfort. Short of molded customs, every in-ear headphone I've tried causes canal soreness within an hour or two, including the "sound delivery straw" designs with delicate foam or rubber surrounds. Secondarily, it looks like the current model sticks out, causing pressure if one's head is resting on its side. That said, my ear canal soreness is largely due to canal deformation relating to jaw movement. Perhaps this is not an issue for sleeping. Also, foam earplugs (compared to earphones) are not uncomfortable for me.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
There are some people that have very differently shaped ears that we simply can't account for with a single design. Can I ask which part of your ear got irritated so that I can make a note? http://www.rudyard.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/external-ear-anatomy.jpg http://www.rudyard.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/external-e... Was it the tragus?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
foxylad 12y ago
I do get canal soreness from foam plugs. I've recently found that the silicone blob ear plugs are much more comfortable (perhaps because they stay in the outer ear), and are also more effective at sound reduction. I guess one of the challenges for this project will be handling the variations in ear geometry.
- d4n13ll33 12y ago
  Some people do like the silicone tree design earplugs more than the foam. It varies. We are considering providing some of those as a stretch goal! Yeah, the variations of ears is definitely the hardest challenge in our product

chockablock 12y ago

I really like this idea! Combining isolation and masking in a standalone in-ear device is very clever. Personally I'm less interested in the ability to be interrupted by alerts from a smartphone. When I'm sleeping I want to sleep. When I'm working, I can get vibration alerts from my phone. Have you considered a 'dumb' version with just pre-recorded masking audio and no wireless features?

d4n13ll33 12y ago
Thanks! :D Haven't considered that :/ I would have to ask around to see if there is significant interest enough to merit the engineering costs to make a cheaper version :/ Thanks for the input though!
- bashinator 12y ago
  Combined isolation and masking is a great feature! You might consider working with the author of Noise Machines[0] for a later iteration. That site is a lifesaver in a noisy office. [0] http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php

bashinator 12y ago

Your site is down at the moment, so let me ask - as a musician, what do these get me over Etymotic's earplugs? I have a $160 pair of custom-molded plugs with replaceable filters that go from -5 to -20dB attenuation.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
They're meant more for sleep! Musician earplugs offer a completely different value proposition in keeping the frequency response the same while reducing dB. Our earplugs' purpose is to get maximum dB isolation so that your sleep isn't disturbed!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

Altaer 12y ago

Are the batteries going to be replaceable? I worry when the battery ages it won't last through the night. At 10 hours of charge maximum, if the battery loses just 20% of its max capacity, I would run risk of the battery not making it through the night.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
No they aren't. We have 500 cycles (I believe, maybe more if we change the charge rate) of our battery before it goes to 80% of max capacity, which is still 8 hours. Even if you were to use the same device for years, the sound masking would just turn off prematurely in the night and make sure it preserves enough juice to sound the alarm in the morning

tbranyen 12y ago

Heya! Just backed the project, seems super promising! As a developer have you tested these while coding? I've tried rainymooods which works alright, but I'm wondering now if this wouldn't be more effective (because of the cancelling). Also I may have missed this, but do you have any ideas with regards to motion sensoring or opening the API? It'd be great to buy a motion sensor compatible with Android and hook into the wearables to alert if someone (or in the case of camping something) is nearby.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
Cool thanks! :D I use a wired version all the time and I love how I can zone in and ignore the things going on around me! Motion sensing would be a bit of an expensive add-in. :( We would want to open up the API, thinking about it but we're a little worried because we don't know if there will be much application as our feature set is very tailored to the use case that we've defined :/
- tbranyen 12y ago
  Well this is what I mean. You say expensive; I say damn cheap : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/192833321/pebblebee-the-most-versatile-ios-android-bluetooth https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/192833321/pebblebee-the... This is why you need to open up the API in whatever form you can. Developers are going to want to use your tool in ways you aren't thinking of.
  - d4n13ll33 12y ago
    I guess we're just hesitant to add extra hardware now because fitting everything initially was a bit of a pain. True on the opening up of the API - we'll most likely end up opening it up!

Tarrosion 12y ago

If you can deliver on the promise, this would be worth way more than $150 to me. Probably more than $500. I'm a light sleeper and I live in a city - not a great combination. But I am for now a little skeptical: - I have never used a pair of earbuds or earplugs which are comfortable for more than ~20 minutes. This includes soft foam earbuds and plugs, small-sized musician earplugs (I have tiny ears), and earplugs custom fit by an audiologist. - Even that custom fit pair (which I bought for sleeping) doesn't work for sleeping: I'm a side sleeper, and sleeping on my side applies a little pressure to the ear canal. It's enough that those custom fit earplugs don't fit right when I'm on my side. - Those custom fit earplugs are not even close to mirror images of each other. It's not obvious to me that the same piece of foam can be appropriate for both ears, no matter how deformable it is. My main point of feedback: focus on comfort - specifically sleeping comfort for people with odd ears and odd sleeping positions - over everything else. I would pay piles of money for earplugs comfortable enough to sleep in with say 10dB reduction, far better that than not-quite-comfy enough smart earplugs with 70dB reduction. Similarly, I would happily sacrifice battery life, aesthetics, cost, smart features, etc. for comfort.

d4n13ll33 12y ago
Unfortunately, there is no physical way that we can be significantly more comfortable than soft foam earplugs as we have to house electronics and a battery inside :/ Have you tried good quality soft earplugs? Maybe some Hearos Ultimate Softness? There are some really bad earplugs that are uncomfortable that we will be more comfortable than. But if you've used good earplugs and found them uncomfortable, I'm sorry to say, but there's no way we'll be able to make it anymore comfortable than that :(