Nura's Dragan Petrovic, Kyle Slater, Luke Campbell and Wilson Shao. Source: Supplied.
A unique set of headphones that automatically tune to your hearing have landed on Kickstarter, surpassing a goal of $100,000 in just hours.
The Nura headphones integrate patented soundwave technology to automatically measure your hearing in 30 seconds — from the outer ear all the way to the brain — and adapt the music to produce sound quality normally found in far more expensive headphones.
Nura CEO Kyle Slater co-founded the team with medical doctor Luke Campbell and Dragan Petrovic, a PhD in electrical engineering from University of California. They’ve essentially dropped everything for Nura.
“When we grew up we were like the Von Trapp family, we were just surrounded by music. My Dad was an Opera singer and my Mum a music teacher, and once you get it in your blood it’s hard to be away from it,” Mr Slater said.
“I was over at UC Berkeley California, doing a visiting scholarship as part of my PHD. One of my colleagues walked in with a pair of expensive headphones, and I said you’re an engineer right, and she said yeah. And I said if someone asked you how to make a pair of perfect headphones, as an engineer would you be able to answer that? And she said not really.
“I realised that question doesn’t have an answer … there’s no such thing as the perfect headphones, there are only headphones that are perfect for you. That was a really lightning bolt moment, and that’s not being accounted for in any of the headphones that are around.
The team received funding and support from the Melbourne Accelerator Program, the Small Technology Cluster and the HAX Accelerator in China, which is the world’s biggest hardware accelerator.
“Nura is developing a revolutionary product and it’s phenomenal to see their technology develop,” MAP director Rohan Workman said.
“Kyle had applied for MAP in previous years and just missed out however he was successful in 2015. It was pretty easy to select them given the expertise on the team, the advanced stage of their product and the fact that it could be a truly transformational business.
“Throughout MAP15, Nura was able to develop its first prototypes and gain a far better understanding of their market. Although Kyle and Luke are experts in hearing science they still had a lot to learn about business which they picked up like fish to water. By the end of MAP Nura had a working prototype, had contact with numerous interested investors (including Dolby Digital who they met during our Silicon Valley trip) and were strongly placed to enter the Hax Accelerator which they’ve done.”
The Nura headphones. Source: Supplied.
The headphones use a microphone to listen to the faint sounds the ears make, and learns your hearing profile in 30 seconds. It then can recognise exactly who’s listening without needing to press any buttons, so if two people share the headphones it will automatically know who is using them at any given time.
Nura headphones connect to the lightning/USB port of your smartphone rather than the headphone port, a decision Mr Slater said meant higher quality sound and negated the need for a battery in the headphones. He said Apple removing its 3.5mm jack from iPhones would be the right way forward.
The headphones also combine both ear bud and over-ear cup design, which isn’t normally seen in headphones, and Mr Slater said they provided excellent noise cancellation.
“People spend an enormous amount of energy creating music, mastering music, and getting all the levels perfect. Then all of that is lost when we put headphones on, and that’s not good enough,” he said.
“With certain headphones, you’re missing instruments, you’re missing detail. We want to make sure you hear absolutely everything.”
Mr Slater has also commenced testing with a number of popular artists and producers to get their feedback.
The Nura headphones are currently available on Kickstarter for $199 for ‘Early Bird’ adopters, a 50 per cent discount on the retail price of $399. They’re expected to ship in April 2017.
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