<\/p>\n
Earbuds and headphones are the latest wearable technology breaking new ground thanks to generative artificial intelligence – Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n Thomas URBAIN<\/em><\/p>\n AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI\u2019s superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way.<\/p>\n Startups have for a while tried to beef up headphones beyond their basic functions, like listening to music and making phone calls.<\/p>\n Nearly a decade ago, tech startups Waverly Labs and Mymanu added real-time translation to that list, and Google quickly followed suit, creating a voice-activated AI assistant in 2020.<\/p>\n Riding the AI wave, other tech industry leaders Samsung and Apple have also entered the fray, with noise cancellation now almost a product standard.<\/p>\n Startups, many of which are attending this week\u2019s CES consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas, are now trying to refine this technology and apply it to specific uses.<\/p>\n Such is the case with OSO, which wants to take the concept of a professional assistant further.<\/p>\n Its earbuds will record meetings and retrieve conversation elements on demand using everyday language.<\/p>\n Viaim, a competitor, offers similar services and intends to focus on interoperability in a world controlled by major smartphone manufacturers that impose their own platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you use a different brand of cell phone, it doesn\u2019t have any AI functions at all. That\u2019s the opportunity for our earbuds,\u201d explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.<\/p>\n Timekettle, meanwhile, is enjoying success in a completely different context, with \u201c90 percent of its sales coming from schools,\u201d according to Brian Shircliffe, head of US sales for the Chinese company.<\/p>\n Many schools equip their non-English-speaking students with the devices so they can follow lessons without the need for a translator.<\/p>\n \u2013 Reading minds \u2013<\/p>\n As for whether earbuds can replace smart glasses, connected speakers, or even smartphones as the dominant physical extension of generative AI, remains unanswered.<\/p>\n For now, any AI functionality \u201cis really dependent on the phone that it\u2019s connected to,\u201d said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.<\/p>\n \u201cEarbuds are certainly a more accessible entry for AI than smart glasses,\u201d said Avi Greengart, president of Techsponential, a consultancy.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a lot less expensive, they\u2019re a product most smartphone users are buying anyway, and they don\u2019t require a prescription.\u201d<\/p>\n However, \u201cpeople generally don\u2019t wear them all the time,\u201d unlike glasses, \u201cand they can only interact with voice, so you\u2019ll need to be in an environment where talking is acceptable,\u201d the analyst cautioned, adding that the lack of a camera limits the device\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n Some won\u2019t be constrained by the shortcoming, notably Naqi Logix, whose Neural Earbuds are equipped with ultra-sensitive sensors that detect tiny movements.<\/p>\n Thanks to these sensors, a quadriplegic user can control their wheelchair or surf the internet simply by looking at their computer screen.<\/p>\n Operations manager Sandeep Arya sees great potential for these innovations, \u201cbecause people would like to be able to interact with their environment in a more discreet, subtle way,\u201d without having to call out to Siri on their smartphone, Alexa on their speaker, or Meta on their glasses.<\/p>\n Arya envisions the technology going further, thanks to improved sensors capable of deciphering facial movements that a chatbot can use to find the right tone and words according to mood.<\/p>\n Neurable, another startup whose MW75 Neuro LT headset measures brain activity, dreams of using its equipment to enable communication through thought, without gestures or words.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s remarkable,\u201d says Ben Wood of these breakthroughs, \u201cbut it\u2019s still a niche market for now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Until further notice, \u201cthe hundreds of millions of headphones that have been sold will remain focused on listening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.digitaljournal.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Earbuds and headphones are the latest wearable technology breaking new ground thanks to generative artificial intelligence – Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon Thomas URBAIN AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI\u2019s superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way. Startups have for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2225181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[30218,430428,24751,25423],"class_list":["post-2225180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-ai","tag-computers","tag-tech","tag-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/From-music-to-mind-reading-AI-startups-bet-on-earbuds.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225182,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225180\/revisions\/2225182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}