UK start-up Earzz introduces an intelligent sound-recognition solution to empower people’s listening ability, building a smarter home with accessibility and privacy in mind.
The Earzz Smart Home Monitor is an intelligent new home companion that is always listening for the sounds you need to hear in your home, even when you can’t. From a knock at the door to a crying baby, Earzz will hear it and notify you of the sounds you choose, helping you stay connected with the goings-on of your home without the need for tech which invades your household’s privacy.
While other smart home systems focus on voice recognition to convert speech into commands, Earzz is dedicated to listening out for anomalies in sound instead of speech, instantly sending tailored notifications to your device based on pre-selected alerts – and because the audio files are never stored, your privacy is guaranteed.
Whether you’re a home worker who needs alerting to the postman being at the door, or you’re hard of hearing and would benefit from the empowerment of virtual ears, Earzz offers this versatility and convenience packaged into a single wireless device that fits in the palm of your hand.
“I noticed there were plenty of monitors that could listen for one sound, but none that could listen for a variety of sounds. Especially the sounds I wanted,” explains Prad Thiruvenkatanathan, Inventor and Founder of Earzz.
“I had nine different monitors in my home including a baby monitor, a smart doorbell, a pet monitor for the cat, and even a glass break monitor for security. Each was single-purpose, expensive, and – in the case of the baby monitor – had a limited life span before becoming useless. And that is when the idea struck: what if we could have one solution that could do it all?”
EARZZ SMART HOME MONITOR FEATURES:
- Patent pending AI technologyÂ
Earzz comes with patent pending sound recognition AI powered by purpose designed cloud infrastructure that is updated routinely based on your feedback – to get as accurate as possible in recognising your specific sounds at home.
- Expansive and ever-growing library of sounds to choose from
Earzz already offers an extensive selection of over 15 crucial sounds that are commonly encountered at home. Whether it’s a knock at the door, a crying baby, or a smoke alarm, you can simply choose the sounds that matter most to you and get real time alerts on your connected phones, watches and tablets.Â
- Unparalleled Customisation
With Earzz, you are in complete control. You can handpick the most significant sounds and determine how and when you wish to receive alerts, creating tailored notifications based on your home’s unique needs. What’s more, you can also keep track of all the sounds that matter at home with in-app sound logs. You can also configure to pause notifications entirely but get the sounds logged – so you know when you are snoring but don’t get woken up!
- Privacy by design
Earzz AI Algorithms recognise just sounds, not speech. The technology is also designed not to store audio recordings – offering privacy and peace of mind.
- Multi-device connectivity
You can connect multiple Earzz devices that you can place in different parts of your home to listen for different sounds of interest and configure them all with your Earzz app.
OPENING YOUR EARZZ
The Earzz experience is designed from the ground up to be fully customisable by users. Simply place your Earzz device in the appropriate area of your home and use the intuitive Earzz app (iOS/Android) to configure your Earzz for what to listen out for. You will receive instant notifications on your smartphone, tablet, or watch, dependent on network availability.
Thanks to a built-in rechargeable battery, your Earzz device can work wirelessly for up to 8 hours, or it can be left permanently mains-powered via the USB-C socket.
If one Earzz isn’t enough, you can connect multiple Earzz Smart Home Monitors to the app and place them all over your home.
Earzz recognises and alerts for an expansive list of sounds, including most of the common sounds in our homes – and is constantly growing its sound library. Sounds in certain settings may sound different, which is why Earzz has built in the infrastructure to help the algorithms improve through customer feedback, becoming more accurate at recognising specific sounds.
Some examples of events that can trigger alerts are:
- In the hallway:Â Doorbells, knocking, buzzers.
- In the kitchen/utility room:Â Appliance beeps, water running, alarms.
- In the nursery:Â Crying, child sounds.
- Wherever your pets roam:Â Cat meows, dog barks.
Earzz also comes with Activity monitoring so you can know when audible sounds are heard in parts of your home, when you are away, asleep or simply busy!
Within the app, you can choose how you get notified, which devices get notified, and opt to pause notifications with a few taps. You can even select the notification frequency, choosing how often you get alerted for repeating sounds. The in-app log also lets you keep track of when sounds were captured.
PRIVACY MATTERSÂ
With Earzz, your conversations remain yours. Thanks to patent-pending AI technology, Earzz only identifies sound anomalies, not speech, and the audio is deleted after it has been processed. The brand also uses secure cloud infrastructure to ensure privacy, security, and scalability.
The devices use industry-standard Secure Boot to ensure that only authorised Earzz firmware runs on them, and encrypted communication protocols ensure the privacy and security of all data communicating to and from the Earzz monitors.
The Earzz smart home monitor is launching this summer in the UK and will be available in black and white with prices starting at £7.99/month for an annual subscription from earzz.com, with the first monitor offered free.
Featured Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash.
