HearSense

Description

HearSense is software I designed to raise awareness about the hearing loss affecting our population, whatever the age, and often without anyone noticing. To do so, I built this software as an installer delivered through a setup.exe file (generated with Inno Setup). The software is not perfect, because it is impossible to truly estimate the number of decibels coming out of a computer given the multitude of audio outputs. Moreover, at the time of this project, Windows did not allow access to anything other than its internal mixer to retrieve the sound level (dBFS). As explained above, this means it does not take into account the volume settings inside applications, web services (YouTube, etc.), the user's output hardware, any external equalizer or the user's own hearing specificities (tinnitus, sensitivities). I therefore designed the dB(A) estimation functions for a loudspeaker close to the ear (headphones). If the output system is different, the estimates may be completely wrong. Nevertheless, I wanted to build this software as a symbolic awareness-raising effort. It includes several features, such as: Sending notifications when the estimate reaches a threshold set by the user. An automatic system that lowers the overall Windows volume if the sound level exceeds this threshold. A real-time chart recording the sound level. The interface is minimized and runs in the background from the moment the computer starts. The software is optimized to use very few resources (~50 MB of RAM, CPU usage below 2% when a sound is detected, and a latency of 125 ms).