MANAF

Multicommunication solution for noisy environments

Type	Open Call No.	Funds granted
Single AE	OC 3	€50,000.00

Check out why the project is a success story!

Challenge

The challenge for Safehear is to make communication possible in a noisy environment.

Today, operators are required to wear hearing protection from an exposure of 80dB. These hearing protectors work so well that they isolate them from their environment and can be a source of accidents. Safehear’s challenge is to design a radio protocol that meets this need while taking into account the use of industrial workers: no connection to the telephone, a completely plug-and-play device that does not require push-to-talk or parameterisation. Everything must be automated to improve the ease of use and the rate of use.

Solutions provided

To address this problem Safehear created Louis, a hearing protector that allows two-way communication by capturing the user’s voice at the source. This voice is then processed before being sent by radio to a second user located within 15 meters. The purpose of the MANAF project is to make this communication possible for up to 10 people. The envisaged solution is based on STM32 microcontrollers coupled with other components in order to implement a filtering brick and a radio brick. The development of speech distribution/voice enhancement algorithms is the solutions implemented during the MANAF project.

Consortium strength

The DIGIFED consortium represents a real strength for Safehear: ST microelectronics was able to provide Safehear with several hardware platforms to allow the development by the engineering teams. The support of BlueMorpho will also be a great point for Safehear’s arrival on the European market: the group will be able to organise the sale of the product in countries like Germany or England. The objective with Bluemorpho will be to understand the challenges of internalisation but also to meet international investors. Safehear is in the process of filing several patents on the original version of the product. But other intellectual property extensions will be created during the DIGIFED program, as developments progress.

Business development

In terms of business, we plan to sell the solution as a package:

• 4 earplugs (LOUIS)
• 4 pairs of hearing protectors & their maintenance kit
• 1 charging station for the devices (VERSAILLES)

The above package will be sold for 3,100 € or 775 € per LOUIS alone. Thanks to a partnership with LOCAM (a bank providing a rental model), it will be possible to offer 24 or 36 months rental option. The target markets is the light industry with noise levels between 80dB and 95dB, in closed environments.

Companies involved

Safehear is based in Lyon, and co-founded by Antoine Kuhnast (CTO) and Héléna Jerome (CEO). With a team of 10 people with marketing and engineering profiles, they design a professional earplug for the industry field. Safehear’s mission is to prevent professional risks by upgrading communication. The in-ear earphones they are designing will help to protect hearing ability thanks to an autonomous and innovative device: a smart embedded system with a selective filtering solution combined with a dynamical multipoint network. The solution under development has the following impacts: comfort, productivity and security improvements.

Website	Company size	Country	Industry sector
www.safehear.fr	Micro (1-10)	France	Industry 4.0

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