What is SmartEars?

Custom Hardware Options

The physical setup of SmartEars depends on your application. From industrial enclosures to discreet residential units — the casing, connectivity, power source and output interface are fully customizable.

Typical dimensions: The core SmartEars unit fits within a compact enclosure of approximately 9 × 6 × 3 cm. The final size may vary depending on added components like battery, display, or wired outputs.

(Visual impression of the SmartEars casing – size and ports vary per setup)

How It Works

• Sound Capture: Dual MEMS microphones on the ReSpeaker 2-Mic HAT capture stereo audio.
• Spectrogram Analysis: Real-time FFT + Mel filterbank processing converts sound into a time-frequency representation.
• AI Classification: A lightweight TensorFlow Lite model detects patterns like speech, alarms, or silence.
• Response: Based on detection, SmartEars can trigger a light, alert a system, or perform a custom action — either locally or via network connection.

SmartEars doesn’t record everything — it listens for meaningful change. Unlike cameras, it doesn’t capture images or identities. It detects what matters: a sudden alarm, a quiet room that shouldn’t be quiet, a sharp noise, or a call for help. Or the subtle shift in sound from a machine that normally hums steadily — a sign of wear or failure that operators might overlook until it’s too late.

(Signal flow: from sound capture and spectrogram to AI-based classification)