GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research [LWN.net]

From:		Daniel James <daniel-AT-64studio.com>
To:		lwn-AT-lwn.net
Subject:		Press Release - GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research
Date:		Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:20:55 +0100
Message-ID:		<4C7FCEE7.8060702@64studio.com>
Archive-link:		Article, Thread

Isle of Wight, UK, 2nd September 2010

The next generation of digital hearing aids is being developed and
tested on real-time GNU/Linux systems from 64 Studio Ltd, using
dedicated multi-channel audio interfaces and standard Lenovo notebooks.

HörTech gGmbH is a not-for-profit company based in Oldenburg, Germany,
specializing in research on hearing impairment and augmentation
technology. At the Haus des Hörens facility in Oldenburg, university and
industry researchers collaborate on new software algorithms which will
one day be available to the general public in hearing aid products.

Researchers needed a mobile platform which could process audio from the
six miniature microphones in the binaural hearing aid devices with the
lowest delay possible. All digital audio processing introduces latency,
but if the delay is greater than a few milliseconds, the hearing aid
wearer will begin to perceive a mismatch between what they can see or
feel and the sound in their ears.

64 Studio was commissioned by HörTech to create a GNU/Linux real-time
audio distribution, code-named Mahalia, optimized for the Lenovo
Thinkpad X200 notebook. Giso Grimm of the Carl von Ossietzky-Universität
Oldenburg explained: "We prefer to use ready-to-use Linux audio
distributions over patching the kernel ourselves, since our expertise is
in signal processing, not kernel development. When we were faced with
the fact that our then favourite audio distribution failed to deliver
stable real-time kernels for several releases, we asked 64 Studio to
tailor us a customized distribution with a working real-time kernel that
matched our specific needs and ran stable on the selected hardware."

"64 Studio created a distribution that met our needs with a stable,
current real-time kernel and all the audio applications that we needed.
They provided support to us and our partner labs to get the distribution
up and running. The system since runs stable and lets us concentrate on
our real task, optimizing the signal processing for the hard of hearing."

http://www.hoertech.de/
http://www.64studio.com/

Notes for editors
-----------------

Caption for image attachment: Digital hearing aid research requires the
lowest possible latency from the host operating system

Background: 64 Studio Ltd. produces bespoke GNU/Linux distributions
which are compatible with official Debian and Ubuntu releases.
Specialising in multimedia and digital content creation platforms which
we develop for our OEM partners, we also offer support, documentation
services and consultancy. Our software is already included in several
shipping products in the professional audio market, with more to follow.
In addition, we offer a free download product which has won critical
acclaim for its stability and high performance.

ends

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GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research

Posted Sep 4, 2010 1:45 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

64studio has been around for a long time now. This is certainly not the first time they have provided custom audio distributions for people to use.

At least one thing they worked on was a audio workstation (overblown keyboard with x86 hardware and a screen) that is used by swear-to-gosh real audio musicians and professionals.

It's a good business model and they claimed (at least in the past) to make sure that the software they use will be open source and remain compatible with the Debian version they are basing it off of. Which is quite a accomplishment if they are able to do this since nobody else has been able due to Debian's exceptionally poor release practices.

GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research

Posted Sep 4, 2010 13:09 UTC (Sat) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

Remaining compatible with a given Debian version is easy, surely? It's remaining compatible with a given Debian version and with cutting-edge systems that I'd expect to be the tricky part.

GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research

Posted Sep 4, 2010 16:25 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Yeah. Keeping the system current, useful, and working with modern hardware with Debian stable is what is difficult.

Most distros that were created in the past to try to make Debian 'friendly' failed to do so. That was until Ubuntu came along and they did it by breaking compatibility.

When 64studio was younger I ran Debian with 64studio kernels and packages mixed into Debian proper and that worked out actually pretty well. But then for a while it became difficult to get the two to work together as 64studio worked to improve the software packages and kernels it offers and, I think, flirted with Ubuntu compatibility. All this is history, though. I don't know how it is now, really.

It's useful because making and building a decent 'realtime' kernel is a PITA and Debian's kernels are good for servers, but are not so hot at much else (relative to other kernel configurations and patches you can have)

I really have not tried it since, but I am happy that they are still getting commercial contracts. Being a commercial entity based off of open source software is difficult and it's good when small entities are able to keep going at it. Now to how much money they make or how much of a full time effort it is, I have not a clue.

GNU/Linux powers state-of-the-art hearing aid research

Posted Sep 4, 2010 18:43 UTC (Sat) by jrigg (subscriber, #30848) [Link]

This is an interesting development. It's good to see that 64studio was able to help.

On the subject of Debian and modern hardware, as an audio engineer I've been using Debian amd64 on my recording DAWs for the last five years. My latest setup uses an RME HDSPe MADI interface, which isn't exactly out of date yet. Admittedly I compile a custom kernel and most of my audio apps from upstream source, but it's been a very reliable platform.