The design project discussed in this blog is related to a health condition. Please consult with a healthcare professional before applying any ideas or concepts mentioned here to your specific situation.
Affecting over 130,000 people in the UK alone, Hyperacusis is the condition where specific sounds are perceived louder than they are. To cope, most sufferers often use earplugs or noise cancelling headphones. However, if overly protected from these triggering sounds, those with hyperacusis never learn to acclimatise to their environment, heightening their sensitivities.
Bubbl have been developed to protect those with hypersensitive hearing whilst never isolating them from their environment. After the product has been set to a personalised calibration, Selective Active Noise Reduction cancels out the frequencies of only the triggering sounds, allowing everything else to pass through unaffected thanks to the open ring drivers. As well as protecting the user, Bubbl implements sound therapy techniques by letting through more of the triggering noises over time, desensitising them and actually helping improve the user’s condition, providing both immediate and long term solutions.