How A Tiny In-Ear Device Can Mute Noise And Help You Sleep Better At Night

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Janne Kyllönen is co-founder and chief product officer at QuietOn. Before QuietOn, Janne worked with Nokia, Microsoft and Pehutec as Sr.Project Manager and Product Owner. Janne is widely recognized expert in technology development and user experience.

He is inventor of over 10 patents families and key creator of several product concepts. He has M.Sc. in Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics from University of Joensuu.

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Why Is There So Much Noise These Days?

Some noises are caused by important work: garbage trucks, lawn mowers, air conditioners
Some noises are created by people: music, singing
But sometimes it can be too much
As people move closer to each other in cities, there is bound to be more noise

How Much Damage Can Noise Cause To Hearing

If you spend 2-3 hours per day with 85 decibels of noise
Dentists are exposed to 70–75 decibels, 40% of dentists report hearing problems after they retire
At 30 decibels, people can start to have problems with sleeping
Above 55 decibels, people can experience heart problems

What Is The Frequency Of Noise

Typically high frequency sounds are annoying…such as alarms
But low frequency sounds can be ok for people
500 Hz – 1.2 Khz is the range of frequency that humans react more to
Alarms are 3 Khz
When music comes through the walls, its typically low frequency that can pass through walls: 50-250 Hz
Walls reflect higher frequencies back
Car engines are 100-500 Hz.
Snoring is 200-800 Hz

What’s Wrong With Foam Earplugs

Foam earplugs are not that effective for low frequencies – they may lower the decibels by about 5-10
Foam earplugs are quite effective at higher frequencies above 1K
Foam ear plus will not be effective for snoring, in the airplane or in the cars
Foam earplugs are passive sound cancelling

How Does Noise Masking Work?

Noise masking works by putting up sounds like a white noise
But the sound is still going to have noise in the ear
Research shows that people still don’t get the best REM sleep with noise

How does Active Noise Cancelling & Work?

Electronics in your ear are able to detect sounds outside
Then they emit other sounds to cancel out the external sound before it hits your ears
The two opposing sound waves interfere and mute each other
This allows the device to drop down the noise level by 30 decibels
Active noise cancelling cannot work well over 1 KHz