[NFB-DB] A Sound Recognition Feature

[Scott Davert]

Hi Maggie.
My testing have found that to detect the noise, it must be louder than
any of the surrounding sounds. When a sound is detected, it will show
up as a notification and also send the user a vibration when on an
iPhone. The two times I tested the smoke alarms in my apartment, I was
alerted within two seconds. However, it’s an alert as casual as a
notification of a change in a sports score, a new message on Slack or
many other notifications I wouldn’t feel an urgent need to
investigate. I also, found that bigger dogs, with a louder bark, often
could be detected from quite some distance away. However, smaller
dogs, with a higher-pitched bark, seem to be reported less frequently.
The cat sound detection works for meowing and doesn’t seem reliable.
The higher pitched the noise, the less often the device picks up on
it. I also barked at my phone and felt like a good boy, as my iPhone
reported that it thought it had detected a dog. It was not clear to me
what exactly appliances Sound Recognition is referring to, as running
a dish washer, washing machine, and dryer did not alert me to any
sounds. Car horns I was often
alerted to when commuting through cities. Doorbell sounds from Youtube
reliably set off the recognized sound notification. Door knocking
generated a few
false positives if you hammer or knock on a table. Water running also
produced a couple false positives, but alerted me to running water on
one occasion when I left the water running on my bathroom sink.
It's like object recognition, this technology is still in its infancy,
but it may improve in the future. I wonder, for example, if the
announced feature in iOS 16 concerning the ability to "teach" it your
own sounds will be more reliable, since it knows exactly what to
listen for. I certainly would like the ability to change the vibration
alert patterns if I could as mentioned above. I hope this info is
helpful....

Scott

On 6/5/22, Penny Leclair via NFB-DB <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> I would not want to lose the hey seri feature though! Too bad we gain but
> lose in that process!
> Penny
>
> Sent from Mail for Windows
>
> From: Maggie Stringer via NFB-DB
> Sent: June 4, 2022 8:13 PM
> To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List; Community Service
> Discussion List
> Cc: Maggie Stringer; nfb-db at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [NFB-DB] A Sound Recognition Feature
>
> A special iPhone setting that was recently mentioned in the last issue of
> the Blind Perspective magazine.
>
> "Have you tried Sound Recognition in the iOS 15 update?  It’s in settings,
> accessibility, and you will find Sound Recognition. Just past Hearing. It’s
> mainly for someone that is hard of hearing.
> It has several options to check such as fire, smoke, dog barking, water
> running, knock on the door, doorbell, and even baby crying.
>
> When you turn on sound recognition and whatever you check in the options,
> when your phone hears one of those sounds, it plays a pre-selected sound.  I
> have a siren selected for the smoke detector. I did have water running
> selected, but every time I ran water, it sounded an alert! It not only plays
> the alert through your hearing aids but it will play them over the phone if
> you don’t have hearing aids in.
> Note: if you enable the Sound Recognition Feature, then the “Hey Siri”
> feature will be disabled."
>
>
> Maggie Stringer
> Phone: (443) 750-0070
> Email: ravensfan784 at gmail.com
> Community Service Facebook Page
> NFB Website
> NFB Ohio Website
> “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."
>
>