from Hacker News

Hush: The World's First Smart Earplugs

by dskang on 11/17/14, 9:13 PM with 93 comments

  • by nordsieck on 11/17/14, 9:35 PM

    The large 70db next to "hush the world" makes it sound like the earplugs offer 70db of noise reduction.

    Which I know is BS, because the best earplugs made offer 33db of noise reduction.

    I can only assume that the 70db number is the sum of the noise attenuation and the speakers' volume, but specific claims about the earplugs performance would be nice.

  • by d4n13ll33 on 11/17/14, 9:36 PM

    Hacker News just broke our website, LOL

    You could check out what we're doing on our Kickstarter, haha.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hush/hush-the-worlds-fi...

  • by bashinator on 11/17/14, 10:07 PM

    These are definitely not the world's first smart earplugs - Etymotic has been offering this kind of technology for quite a long time now.

    http://www.etymotic.com/gsp15.html

  • by masukomi on 11/17/14, 10:56 PM

    I've got two kinds of custom earplugs (different materials). Both literally have a perfect fit for my ears. Both suck to sleep in. Horrible if you're a side-sleeper, but even if your not, I find that by half-way through the night my ears don't want anything in them anymore.

    The idea is great, but I think that many will find that having plugs in your ears all night is not comfortable.

  • by bravura on 11/18/14, 1:54 AM

    If anyone is looking for mid-price dumb earplugs, I read this article today.

    https://illmethodology.com/2014/11/tried-earplugs-amazon/

    TLDR: A working DJ tried all the mid-price dumb earplugs on Amazon, and recommends EARASERS.

  • by chromakode on 11/17/14, 10:05 PM

    For anyone who sleeps on their side, earplugs with plastic extending outside the ear canal is a very uncomfortable experience. How is this an improvement over soft foam inserts?

    Also, how is this different from using in-ear headphones with Comply tips? http://www.complyfoam.com/

  • by chockablock on 11/17/14, 10:20 PM

    Very cool product. You can get a similar effect to these isolation+masking plugs by wearing normal earplugs and then playing loud masking sounds externally (either over speakers in the same room, or through over-the-ear headphones).

    On planes, for instance, I wear headphones over my earplugs and crank up the volume to watch movies. It's the poor-man's noise-canceling headphones! If you can, also turn up the treble to try to flatten out the combined frequency response of the plugs+phones.

    Obviously my hack doesn't solve the same problems this product does, but it's a trick I've found useful.

  • by errantspark on 11/17/14, 10:23 PM

    Doesn't Kickstarter have a policy against using renders?

    https://www.kickstarter.com/rules

    "we prohibit photorealistic renderings."

  • by benjamincburns on 11/18/14, 6:14 AM

    Would be nice if I didn't need to download a 2.1 MiB image to view this page. Could probably keep the visual appeal here without the bloat by simply switching to JPEG.

    Edit:

    Also I'm having a hard time understanding your value proposition. Are these doing some active noise canceling, or are they just simply a bluetooth headset with semi-decent passive noise suppression?

    Also, why would I want these to be connected to my smartphone while I'm sleeping? Am I going to be woken up by every text/e-mail?

    Point being, when I read the copy at the top of your page I instantly think that your product is going to make my ability to sleep worse rather than better.

    Edit 2:

    The rest of the page clears up some of my questions, but I think you'd have a lower bounce rate if you worked on the headline copy a bit more.

  • by d4n13ll33 on 11/17/14, 9:22 PM

    Developer here! Hoping to get some feedback if possible!

  • by lnanek2 on 11/18/14, 4:51 AM

    Hmm, I don't really see any benefit over my current solutions. I can wear cheap foam/silicone ear plugs and just set my alarm louder. Sometimes I just sleep with small rubber wired ear buds in (not the hard plastic ones) if I want to listen to audio while going to sleep. Never had any trouble with either method enough to pay this much. Props to these people if they can manage to market people into paying that much for not much different than current solutions, though.

  • by grondilu on 11/18/14, 3:52 AM

    Noise cancellation is a big, existing market. If they really have a better technology to offer, they don't need a Kickstarter.

  • by serf on 11/17/14, 9:26 PM

    seems like it's sure missing the chance at sleep tracking -- a connected hardware implement that you need to wear while sleeping.

  • by moe on 11/18/14, 1:56 AM

    And yet another widget that needs to be charged...

    What happens when I forget charging?

    Will I miss my alarm in the morning or will it wake me up with a low battery alarm in the middle of the night?

  • by prteja11 on 11/18/14, 12:20 AM

    Do these work well on flights? Especially when you are sitting close to the exit row near the engine(s). OR am i better off buying the Bose Noise Cancelling headset?

  • by d4n13ll33 on 11/17/14, 11:30 PM

    New thread going on at the FP. This one was brought down for a reason unknown to me as all the traffic was organic! :(

  • by fernandotakai on 11/17/14, 9:35 PM

    man i so thought this played music, it would be the perfect headset for me. i like listening to audiobooks before sleeping and every single bt headset i tried doesn't let me move around while laying down (mostly because the wrap around the back of my head).

  • by j-conn on 11/18/14, 2:17 AM

    What I want are plugs that quiet sounds from within the body / ear canal...

  • by bingobob on 11/18/14, 1:50 AM

  • by bentcorner on 11/17/14, 10:07 PM

    Are the tips replaceable or can the buds be cleaned to remove wax build-up?

  • by boards2x on 11/18/14, 7:45 AM

    Find it shameful that even though it seems most of the developers are clearly non-white (see about-us), they use standard stock images of Caucasians. I would never buy a product promoted this way.

  • by NicoJuicy on 11/18/14, 7:52 AM

    hush.technology , i'll probably never remember the domain...