How EPOS BrainAdapt Technology Works –

While at Gamescom 2023 in Cologne, we had the opportunity to catch up on EPOS to talk about a number of exciting new collaborations and technologies that the company is currently working on. One such process is known as BrainAdapt, which is an enhancement of EPOS hearing aids so they can help your brain process sound better, and in the spirit of wanting to learn more about this amazing technology, our Communications Lead from EPOS, Michael Henning Jensen asked how exactly BrainAdapt works.

Well, BrainAdapt is primarily a set of philosophies that we use when developing our headphones. It’s not something that should be implied, but it’s our way of approaching product development.

“As I mentioned before, we are owned by Demant. They have 115 years of experience manufacturing hearing aid solutions for people all over the world. Through them we actually have access to a big research center called Eriksholm in northern Denmark. And here we really have the opportunity to do a lot of Research with professional scientists studying how sound affects our brain.

“And so BrainAdapt is very much like we’re looking at how to create sound that puts the least amount of stress on your brain and actually gives you the most power for your brain to use for things other than sound, and that’s what comes out OK? Last year we looked at how noise affects your Our brains and we analyzed subjective data where we can actually see that more noise dilates our pupils because your brain spends a lot of effort analyzing what’s going on.This year we’ve expanded that research and we’ve done a double research where we try to be in a noisy environment just like the one we’re standing in. It’s in here, isn’t it? And you’ve been here for a few days, your brain is so tired, you know, you hear all the noise all the time, but our brains are so good at tuning in, and now we’re talking and pushing everything, right?

“So if you are sitting in a gaming environment and making a lot of noise, you have to listen to your teammates giving you hints and telling you what to do. At the same time, there were a lot of games, like Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six, you also had to Listening to the audio cues, you know you get footsteps, you have grenades, you have things where things are going, to do all of that you also have to use your keyboard and tap at the same time.

“We did this double-task test and I was there myself. So we had a lot of background noise, and then at some point you have to hear someone say something and you have to be able to say it again after that. And it’s very easy.” It’s not problem. But then they added that you should be able to hit two arrows and point to the even number on the screen while he’s talking. And, you know, kind of stop, you know…

“…It’s very difficult, and it’s actually, well, it’s a little scary how easily we can be affected by the different things that happen. And our white paper actually shows that with this simple double task, it’s just… it was all about Recognizing the sound and pointing to the arrows, and we’ve already seen that with bad audio, where the noise cancellation, the passive noise cancellation, but also the difference between the noise and the side tone, you can actually see up to 300ms of delay working time if that’s not obvious .

“So if you look at it from a gaming perspective, I think people are paying a lot of money for a 4ms to 2ms screen and a 3 to 2ms mouse. And that’s really something here.

“We did a white paper about that. And now this is BrainAdapt. That means we’re able to do some research and make some decisions based on that. And it doesn’t mean that other people can’t make great headphones.” That’s not what we’re trying to say at all. What we’re trying to do is we really want to make a science-based decision when designing our headphones. And that’s what BrainAdapt is all about.”

Watch the full interview below for more information on EPOS’ collaboration with Xbox and their current line of headphones.