Gadget Tells You If Things Are Loud. Funny, We Thought That's What Our Ears Are For

from the just-saying dept

Wed, Dec 6th 2006 11:45pm — Mike Masnick

There have been plenty of stories over the past few years about how things like iPods may contribute to the rise of hearing problems including potential deafness. While that may be music to the ears of one hearing aid company, it appears others are looking to jump on the "making money off of ipod-induced deafness" as well. The latest is a company that will sell you a $50 device to (no, I am not making this up) tell you if it's loud. Well, technically, it will tell you if the noise in your environment can potentially cause damage, but, again it seems like your ears and your brain should be pretty good at that. It will also work on your iPod, but it will require you to place the earbud against the device's "sound port" and it will tell you how loud it is. This sounds like quite a kludge. If it's really to be even remotely effective, you'd need something that constantly monitors the volume of your iPod and proactively alerts you if it's too loud. In the meantime, though, if you really don't trust your own ears, feel free to splurge on this device.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

15 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

The Swiss Cheese Monster, 7 Dec 2006 @ 12:24am

As a sound engineer there is one thing I have learned:

People don't know when things are too loud. Just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean that you can't do damage. And just because it hurts, doesn't mean damage is being done.

There are tons of variables in whether or not something is doing damage to your hearing. I can't see how a device like this would be all that effective for the long term noise that exists in any environment - but I suppose it would help with situational stuff.

I wonder if there is a market with headphones that have built in limiters?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2006 @ 2:00am

if things gradually get louder, our ears adjust. therefore, we wouldn't know if things were too loud.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
horafuki, 7 Dec 2006 @ 2:51am

As a musician I have to agree with The Swiss Cheese Monster on this one. Percieved loudness is a function of any number of factors such as individual sensitivity, degree of built up resistance to volume, level of toleration (ok same thing), specific nature of the sound source (dynamic range etc.), level of rebellious anger....:P ....etc. etc. vs. the actual volume.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
james l, 7 Dec 2006 @ 4:04am

i just made excrement in my Personal Lower-Torso-and-Appendage Protection (textile) device. Patent Pending.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Terry, 7 Dec 2006 @ 6:16am

I'm loud
I'm constantly busted for being loud. However, I notice other people around me are just as loud or louder. Would your new gadget allow me to quantify my loudness to others loudness?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Terry, 7 Dec 2006 @ 6:20am

I'm loud
I'm constantly busted for being loud. However, I notice other people around me are just as loud or louder. Would your new gadget allow me to quantify my loudness to others loudness?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bumbling old fool, 7 Dec 2006 @ 6:27am

Ever work in a hazardous noise environment?
If you have (like the engine room of a nuclear powered bubmarine) then you would know that:

No. Your ears cannot tell you when something is too loud.

Why? 'cause our ears are too damn smart for our own good. Literally. The signals they send to the brain are normalized. Unless the transition from quiet to loud is more rapid than the volume normalization process you do not notice how loud something is. It is very easy for you become adjusted to something that is causing damage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Louis, 7 Dec 2006 @ 6:43am

Louid
Yeah, loud is relative. Usually when my ears continue ringing the next day I know that I might have abused my ears a little too much the night before.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bob, 7 Dec 2006 @ 7:46am

New and Improved
Wow. Hold your earpiece up to a Decibel meter...? What a new and exciting concept! Bless these men for thinking of this application of a device that's been around for decades, and is cheaper to purchase at a local Radio Shack for those that give a damn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tyshaun, 7 Dec 2006 @ 7:49am

Before you get all sarcastic Mark...
These types of devices are nothing new. I worked as an event coordinator at a local concert hall during college and one of the things we regularly did was use a meter similar to this to "sample" bands as they played and adjust the volument of the sound system accordingly. The basic idea, as stated above, is that your ears tend to attenuate the signal to your brain (or your brain normalizes it, I'm not a hearing expert) and the result is that people unwittingly cause significant long term damage like tinnitus without realizing it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Old Norse, 7 Dec 2006 @ 7:56am

Ha ha...
"bubmarine"...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2006 @ 8:08am

Aren't some frequencies more destructive than others? For example a high pitched ting of a snare or hihat vs a kickdrum
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wolff000, 7 Dec 2006 @ 9:15am

Our Ears Are No good
As stated numerous times our our brain or ears (don't know which) adjust the volume for us. I used to be a roadie and I don't know how many times I stepped out of a room thinking the volume level was fine but when i went back in and the volume level had not changed it hurt my ears right away. I had simply got used to it but once I removed myself something reset and i could tell how loud it was. This device as stated has been around for a long time and numerous venues i have worked at use them so they don't blow the eardrums of of thier patrons. Nothing new here unless the are working on building it into something very very small that you could plug into your mp3 player and plug earbuds into it. Maybe a small ding to let you know that Metallica is blasting too loud or whatever you listen to.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
slimcat (profile), 7 Dec 2006 @ 9:45am

I wish I had a second chance.
I have an approximate hearing loss of 95% in one ear and 65% in the other and I have pretty extreme tinnitus in both ears; yes, I can 'hear' that in the bad ear as well. My hearing loss is not only due to sound injury but also ear infection and sports injuries, mainly surfing and diving where water pressure and temperature (swimmer's ear) did the damage.
If I had it to do over again, I would do everything I could to protect my hearing. In the long run, it's a lot less expensive than surgery, which may or may not work, or needing hearing aids which are a pain in the arse and don't work well if there is loud background noise or even a good wind blowing.
Take care of your damn hearing, you'll be glad you did.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
deafer-than-I-used-to-be, 7 Dec 2006 @ 9:16pm

WHAT???
As a person who has suffered hearing loss from environmental noise, no it is NOT obvious! Perhaps you might do some research before making statements like this. Audiologists (hearing testers) have been saying that with the growing use of portable music players with headphones, people are putting their hearing more and more at risk. It has been stated previously but there are many factors in damage to your hearing, it isn't just the volume of the noise but also there is a time factor involved. Please check some facts in the future before making posts like this and perhaps you might get your own hearing checked too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]