Xmart Volume utilizes the built-in mic of your Mac or iSight. It actively ‘listens’ to the environment sound level. It turns down your headphone volume when it detects any sound which is louder than the background noise.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test this because I don’t have an iSight or built-in microphone. But assuming it works as advertised, it could be useful for those with attention problems or milder hearing impairments who want to be alerted when somebody’s addressing them.
It would be easy to take the source for an application like this and create an application that gave a visual alert when there was a suddenly louder noise detected – this could be helpful for deaf or severely hearing impaired people. If the alert type could be configured, then the application could also be helpful for deafblind people and for monitoring the environment in other ways. I wonder if Oodot would be interested in expanding the application?
Website: Xmart Volume
- Ricky Buchanan
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