Before stepping out of the front door, do you worry whether your hearing aids can compete with the noisy environments of your social life? Are you interested in protecting your hearing from damage? Attending loud concerts or catching the game at your local stadium are great activities that we know will include high volumes in advance, but more and more Americans are being caught by surprise when it comes to the noise level in restaurants and venues. In fact, Zagat?s 2015 ?Dining Trends? survey found that noise was the second most reported complaint, ranking even higher than prices. With customers across the nation complaining about unexpected noise levels, and 48 million Americans with hearing loss, finding hearing friendly venues has become an important step when planning your next night out. The decibel measuring app SoundPrint is designed to help with just that. Created by Gregory Scott, SoundPrint is an extraordinary hand-held decibel reader, giving you the ability to determine whether a measurement is hearing friendly and share those measurements with other users, creating a database of safe and unsafe venues to visit or avoid.
How Does SoundPrint Work?
When enjoying dinner with family or friends at your favorite restaurant or reconnecting with old friends over a drink, a conversation is part of the experience, but excessive background noise can quickly bring the night to an end. If you find yourself yelling across the table in between entrees, or losing your voice at your local pub, it may be time to use SoundPrint. With SoundPrint, determining just how loud is ?too loud? has never been easier.
By utilizing the microphone on your smart device, SoundPrint will take a 15 second reading of the sounds around you and measure the noise level in decibels, reporting back whether the level is safe for hearing, great for conversation, or damaging to your health. From there, you can submit your reading to the SoundPrint database, where the app will use your current location and allow users to log the venue?s name and address. Lastly, by using the search button, you can seek out local venues and their decibel readings, deemed safe or unsafe by other SoundPrint users. With a quick download, you can make sure your next dinner date or night out on the town is hearing friendly, all in the palm of your hand.
The Crucial Crowdsourced Resource
With research indicating that many restaurants and bars in cities across the country are too loud for conversation, having a list of safe and enjoyable venues in your pocket is an extremely convenient (and healthy) resource. Greg Scott couldn?t agree more with SoundPrint and it?s user?s value in keeping your hearing protected and evening headache-free, stating ?it is thanks to SoundPrint users that I now have 30 go-to bars and restaurants in New York City where I can actually have a conversation.?, going even further to detail the public good SoundPrint is achieving. ?These crowd-sourced sound measurements are providing valuable data for the general public as well as public health officials.?
