Google, Cochlear and academic and hearing leaders team up to pave the way for more personalised AI hearing technology
Australian industry leaders across healthcare, research and technology sectors have partnered with Google Australia to explore new applications of AI and machine learning hearing solutions.
The collaboration is part of Google’s Digital Future Initiative and will see Google join forces with Cochlear, Macquarie University Hearing, National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), NextSense and The Shepherd Centre to explore new possibilities in the space.
Research will focus on enhancing hearing technologies to overcome its current challenges and pave the way for more personalised hearing healthcare – with the goal to provide a brighter future for more than 1.5 billion people globally who have hearing loss.
Australia has led the way in finding solutions to help meet these needs, with the cochlear implant now the gold standard for hearing clinical protocols, diagnostics and treatments. For over 75 years, NAL has set global standards to assess hearing impairment, developing hearing healthcare innovations for clinicians and those with hearing difficulty, and developed the most widely used prescription software used by audiologists in the world today. And through NextSense, Australia has one of the world’s largest and most established cochlear implant programs, and has pioneered the use of telepractice.
A range of accessibility tools are already available on Google’s Android, including Live Transcribe, Lookout, Sound Amplifier, Live Caption and TalkBack as well as new initiatives like Project Relate and Project Euphonia.
As part of the project, Simon Carlile, a distinguished world leader in the field, will join Grace Chung and Peter Bartlett – who lead Google’s first Australian research hub, Google Research Australia – to steer the effort on the ground and continue Australia’s proud record of hearing innovation.
The first project will seek to personalise hearing models to better address individual listening needs to enhance hearing aids and other listening devices.
