A giant like Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is carrying out dozens of projects in parallel. Some are extremely promising. This is the case with the one that interests us today.
Over the years, Google has diversified its activities enormously. So much so that, in 2015, the Mountain View firm announced the creation of Alphabet, its parent company to take over the many companies affiliated to the large Google family. Today, we learn of the existence of a very promising project.
Alphabet will work on a wearable capable of isolating precise voices in a crowd
Isolating a precise voice in a crowd, let alone a noisy crowd, is a very difficult exercise. Some do, to a point, with training, but the machine can do much better than any human ear, even trained.
According to a Business Insider report, Google’s parent company Alphabet is working on the development and design of a wearable codenamed Wolverine. This product would offer the ability to isolate precise voices in a crowd.
A project that currently responds to the codename Wolverine
The article which interests us today affirms that the first prototypes of the said device incorporated many microphones which covered the entire ear of the wearer, but it would seem that the latest prototypes to date are much more compact.
It is difficult to know in which situations such a device could be useful. Why not for hearing aids or headphones and other high-end headphones.
That being said, according to the source of Business Insider, Alphabet would remain inflexible: it will be necessary to find many more practical cases of use before considering any commercialization, which suggests that Alphabet would indeed think in the long term with its project. Wolverine.
Alphabet wouldn’t be the only tech company to create such a device. Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, is also reportedly working on something similar, an artificial intelligence-boosted hearing aid. You can watch the video below to get an idea of what such a device might look like.