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Re: [AUDITORY] HearMus seminar series - October 21.10.24

Dear Alinka

I trust you are well. 

I wanted to share some research regarding this topic that I conducted in 2019. I was at a stage of pitching a prototype application to Sonova and Oticon, and also gained some interest from smaller hearing aid manufacturers and personalised audio tech companies. Due to the extensive development and cost requirements to bring this technology to market, I have not managed to take this concept further, however, I did start work on a simplified version of the concept hat has proven successful. I have also put together a proposal for a new file delivery concept/media store that could share the stage with iTunes or Netflix and allow for the user to personalise their listing experience for music, movies and normal programming.

My aim for sharing my research is nothing more than to see the concept of personalised audio technology take off and allow for people to, especially those with hearing difficulties, experiment music not just as it was intended to sound, but like they want it to sound.

Please feel free to share this or reach out if you feel the need to. Below is  a blurb about the research and some links to my designs, prototype application etc.

Kind regards
Louis



I completed research on this topic in 2019/2020 to fulfil my Master's Degree in Audio and Music perception through SAE and Middlesex University. As part of the research, I developed a prototype “Multitrack Assistive Listening App” and pitched the idea to Sonova  (Peter Haldi and Volker Kuehnel), Bragi (Nikolaj Hviid)  and entered into discussions with Audionamix music source separation (Stephen Oliver) regarding licensing of source separation technology and also reached out to Charles Perrot from MWN and the R&D department of Demant/Oticon Hearing Aid Manufacturers. They showed great interest in my proposal and ideas; however, as my concept was still in its infancy stage, I required more finance to develop the app further and make a viable option to ’sell’. At this time, companies were also pouring resources into new Bluetooth technology and recovering from COVID-19-related issues.

I would love to contribute to finding a viable solution to the issues related to music and audio perception through hearing aid instruments. I also compared participants' audiograms with their personalised remix settings, which might be helpful to you. One of the key findings in my research was the need for manual control in the remixing phases for numerous reasons.

Further, as some source separation technology requires a fair amount of “look ahead” and is costly to license,  I have also developed a simplified workflow consisting of a simple M/S mixing technique that is much simpler to implement. Lastly, I proposed a new file delivery framework that could benefit the hearing-impaired population and essentially established a completely new business model akin to iTunes or Tidal.

I have supplied some links to my prototype app and its functionality (please note that the app is currently unavailable on IOS or Google Store as I need to update it). 

I would love to participate in or help with this project, as it's a topic close to my heart. Below are links to my research, demo app, pitch material, and thesis.


HearD App Functionality Demo HERE
HearD App Live Demo HERE
HearD App Simplified M/S signal Flow HERE
HearD App Generic Pitch with New file delivery proposal HERE
HearD App Generic Pitch  HERE
Louis Enslin Masters Thesis HERE

A little blurb about Heard HearD.app
Finally, here’s a little blurb about me: louisenslin.com

I look forward to hearing from you and setting up a meeting to discuss this further. I hope this research can lead to a better musical hearing experience for all!

Kind Regards
Louis

Louis Enslin 
Master of Teaching (Secondary) Maths | FTVNM
Master of Arts | Creative Media (Audio Perception - Assistive Listening Technology)
Secondary Teacher | Sound Designer | Composer | Engineer | Lecturer | Entrepreneur 
Produce-Sound | HearD | HeyLu | Bright Above 
 +61 (0) 491 300 633
 louis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 www.louisenslin.com
LinkedInwww.linkedin.com/in/louis-enslin/ 
Gold Coast | Queensland | Australia 






On 30 Sep 2024, at 22:08, Alinka Greasley <0000033f2edfad3c-dmarc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We are excited to announce the HearMus seminar series, which will commence in October and will be run as an online seminar. 
 
The HearMus seminar series provides a monthly forum for the discussion of a broad array of topics around music and hearing health. The series aims to yield a state of the art of research on music perception and hearing impairment, hearing aids and music, and individual differences in music perception and production. Besides presentations from experts in academia and industry, the seminar series seeks to foster lively discussions and exchange of ideas, with the joint goal of sustaining and enhancing access to music for people with diverse hearing needs.
 
Seminar leaders: Prof. Alinka Greasley, Prof. Kai Siedenburg
 
OCTOBER SEMINAR – Oct 21, 2024, 15:00-17:00 CEST
The first seminar will include two talks on music and hearing aids, with Q&A. There will be opportunity for audience members to introduce themselves and their interest and expertise in the topic area. 
 
Hearing Aids for Music (HAfM) project update
Prof. Alinka Greasley (University of Leeds) 
Listening to and performing music with hearing aids can be challenging. Whilst hearing aids increase audibility and help with hearing out musical elements, users often experience poor sound quality, distortion and difficulties with dynamics, particularly in live music contexts. The Hearing Aids for Music project mapped the prevalence of problems experienced by hearing aid users and identified strategies to help improve access to and enjoyment of music. This talk will summarise the project findings and their implications for key stakeholders (e.g. musicians, audiologists, manufacturers), and describe how results are informing current projects (e.g. Cadenza, Aural Diversity) and ongoing impact & PPIE work. 
 
Hearing aid evaluation for music: Accounting for acoustical variability of music stimuli
Christophe Lesimple (Sonova)
Music is an important signal class for hearing aids, and musical genre is often used as a descriptor for stimulus selection. However, little research has systematically investigated the acoustical properties of musical genres with respect to hearing aid amplification. Two comprehensive music databases were acoustically analyzed where considerable overlap in acoustic descriptor space between genres emerged. Simulating hearing aid processing on these samples has shown that effects of amplification regarding dynamic range compression and spectral weighting differed across musical genres, underlining the critical role of systematic stimulus selection for research on music and hearing aids. Practical application, like how to include samples as random effect in listening experiment for the statistical analysis, will be presented and discussed. 
 
OCTOBER
Topic: HearMus Seminar 1 (21.10.24)
Time: Oct 21, 2024, 15:00-17:00 CEST
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 847 9060 1703
 
We look forward to seeing some of you there!
 
Prof. Alinka Greasley
Professor of Music Psychology
Director of Research and Innovation
School of Music | University of Leeds | Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Email: a.e.greasley@xxxxxxxxxxx | Phone: + 44 113 343 4560