Interview with Luca Brayda, CEO of Acoesis
October 28, 2021
Interview with Luca Brayda, CEO of Acoesis, the innovative Italian start-up behind GLASSENSE®, the high-tech glasses that can solve the problem of understanding speech in noisy environments.
Acoesis is a dynamic project carried out by young engineers, researchers and designers from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia who are specialized in the new emerging field of sensory augmentation. Their studies are supported by the strong belief that technology can make people free and self-conscious, and can help them improve their quality of life. That’s why GLASSENSE® – the first pair of glasses that focuses on voice – was created.
GLASSENSE® is an innovative pair of glasses with a dual purpose:
- it serves as regular glasses (it is certified to host prescription lenses)
- it can bring voices into focus, by simply looking at the speaker
What does this mean? Well, you’re in for a surprise!
Through the earphones placed on the glasses temples, GLASSENSE® allows people to select which voices they want to focus on and listen to distinctively, without any background noise. For example: imagine that you’re having dinner at a chaotic restaurant. Communicating with the other diners might get pretty difficult, but if you’re wearing GLASSENSE® you’ll be able to only pick up the voices coming from your table. Just direct your gaze toward the person – or sound – you want to hear, and that’s it!
GLASSENSE® is available in two variants, the squared lens model (Modello Modern) or round lens model (Modello Round). Lightweight and compact, GLASSENSE® is ideal in any situation.
Hi Luca, nice to meet you and thank you for your time. What are Acoesis and GLASSENSE®, exactly?
Acoesis is the start-up I founded with my partner Luca Giuliani. It was born from our decade-long experience at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, where we studied sensory technologies that could improve people’s lives. This is how GLASSENSE® was born: its unique technology helps people to put into focus only what they want to listen to. It’s a truly revolutionary product, since no other pair of glasses on the market can achieve this. And it is not a hearing aid, because GLASSENSE® filters out unwanted surrounding sounds.
What does “selective listening” mean?
As for selective attention, selective listening refers to the act of deliberately focusing on a certain sound source instead of another. There are many augmented reality gadgets on the market that allow you to enhance the hearing experience, but none of them can isolate sounds, especially voices. Just think about your eyes: you can simply choose not to see, but you can’t always choose not to listen to sounds. Our choice is ecological, since it focuses on people’s wellbeing.
How did the idea of GLASSENSE® come to you, and how long did it take for you to create and launch the product?
The idea was born following a regional project which research facilities and companies from Genoa took part in. Our research work was validated with two international publications. We realized that GLASSENSE® can improve anyone’s listening abilities, even for the non hearing-impaired. Therefore we decided to start a business: we initially worked on prototypes, then we successfully concluded a first fundraising campaign. We started our production last year, and we’re launching it now in 2021. The pandemic didn’t stop us at all: actually, GLASSENSE® is super useful in times of social distancing and mask-wearing, because these two situations decrease speech intelligibility!
Why would someone wear GLASSENSE®?
Because it improves quality of life and relationships. When you live comfortably with surrounding sounds you’re at peace, you’re able to cultivate your relationships and you’re more conscious about yourself and your capabilities.
What’s been the market’s response so far?
It’s been great for now! We already have some satisfied customers, and some big companies are taking interest in the product.
Did you perhaps resort to crowdfunding to launch the project?
We’ve been relying on PR and B2B contacts, and we worked with audio-prosthetists and opticians. Crowdfunding is certainly one of our future goals
Are you considering putting new items on the market in the future?
We’re currently focused on the audio aspect, and we’d like to make GLASSENSE® grow in a way that is useful to the people. But since we’ve worked for years on sensory technologies related to all senses… who knows, let’s see where the market and science will lead us!
Credits:
@Acoesis on https://www.linkedin.com/company/acoesis
@Glassense on https://www.facebook.com/glassensebyacoesis/
@Glassense on https://twitter.com/glassense
You can also try Glassense by clicking on this link:
