ClearBuds' real-time noise-suppression technology outclasses Apple AirPods Pro
A paper on ClearBuds wireless binaural earbuds has been shared at Mobisys 2022 in the US. ClearBuds uses a neural network to enhance the speech streamed from two wireless earbuds. It promises real-time sound separation and background cancellation, both in high quality. But how good is it? Well, the real-time noise suppression technology even defeats AirPods Pro, Apple's much acclaimed flagship earbuds with ANC.
- Wireless earbuds have become extremely popular worldwide as they make taking calls on the go convenient.
- However, background noises make it difficult for both the speaker and listener to communicate. ClearBuds takes care of this issue by suppressing background sounds using speech captured across two earbuds.
- This is a revolutionary technology and should rake in moolah when it heads to the market.
ClearBuds makes two technical changes to bridge the gap between in-ear mobile systems and deep learning for blind audio source separation. Its design makes it able to operate as a binaural synchronized microphone array and its dual-channel speech enhancement neural network can run on mobile devices. Tests show that the earbuds have a synchronization error of fewer than 64 microseconds.
Excited to share ClearBuds, our paper in Mobisys'22.
— Vivek Jayaram (@vivjay30) June 29, 2022
Ever taken a phone call in a noisy environment? We built custom earbuds which stream audio from both ears to your phone. We then run a neural net in real-time on the phone, isolating your voice while removing background noise. pic.twitter.com/lDxtvKQHCW
ClearBuds is designed to isolate a person's voice when other people are talking or when there is a background noise. This separation of voice and noise is done by channeling audio from both earbuds to your smartphone where a neural net removes background noise in real-time. When taking calls using ClearBuds, you just have to turn on noise suppression option on your phone.
We also show superior noise suppression than Airpods Pro
— Vivek Jayaram (@vivjay30) June 29, 2022
Project Page with demos and open-source code: https://t.co/5Sx3Qb88aB
Paper: https://t.co/LtwHJ844xA
Joint work with Ishan Chatterjee, Maruchi Kim, @ShyamGollakota, @kemelmi, Steve Seitz and Shwetak Patel pic.twitter.com/gbUVleFaAH
Seven people have collaborated on this wireless binaural earbuds project. They include Vivek Jayaram, Ishan Chatterjee, Maruchi Kim, Shyam Gollakota, Steve Seitz, Shwetak Patel, and Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman. They shared the paper at the 20th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services.
