IIT Ropar scholars develop earphones that can merge surrounding sounds

PATIALA: In February last year, six teenagers were killed after they were run over by a speeding train while walking on the railway track with earphones on. Now such incidents may be curbed with new research conducted by the scholars at IIT Ropar who had developed a low-cost smart earphones that would not only amplify the surrounding sounds but will also merge it with the music audio signal. This further will make aware the user of the surroundings while using their headphones.
The research was conducted by the scholars Mitali Rathod, Ishika Soni and Lakshya under the guidance of Professor Mahendra Sakare. The researchers named their project as ‘Super Ears’. Professor Mahendra said that further analysis and study will be carried out in future to improve the quality of the project after which it can be used as a spy object.
Professor Mahendra said, “The project instrument carry a microphone along with earplugs. With the help of different frequencies and tuning, the earphones can be used to spy over a particular person even when the person is standing in a group of people. These earphones can be controlled and a particular sound can be enhanced by separating other sounds from the surroundings. It is not new to listen to surrounding voices from earphone but the uniqueness in this is spying and separating noise to listen to a particular voice.”
“We tried to make such an instrument at a lower cost that could make people using headphones aware of their surroundings. It took a minimum cost to complete our research and we were provided with the required material by the institute. The material used in the project had cost only Rs 800,” said Lakshya.
The researchers said that it was their unique idea on which they conducted research and developed the project while the total cost of the project was Rs 2000. They added that besides using the tinkering lab in the institute they used soldering iron and station, hot glue gun, jumper wires, wood and plastic sheets from machinery used for the enclosure to finish their project made in the basic electronics lab. All the mechanical work related to the project was done in the machinery workshop.
Mitali Rathod, another research scholar who had conducted the research, said, “it would be like changing the surrounding world around you as the user can also control over the surrounding ‘noise’ or sounds by increasing or decreasing it. In the past, a number of accident cases have been reported where people were run over by the train while they were sitting on railway-track and listening to music with their headphones. It happened as the users were unable to hear the sound of their surroundings while they were listening to music with headphones. We conducted this research in December last year but were yet to get a patent for it.”