Olive Max is like the AirPods Pro for the hearing-impaired, with a truly wireless design and enhanced listening
Expanding its range to now include the Olive Max, Nevada-based Olive Union is quickly becoming the Apple of hearing-disabled-specific tech. Designers often forget that not everyone is interested in owning the product. Take for instance the Apple Watch. The wearable debuted in 2015 and over the years evolved into an Apple-made smartwatch that could track your heartbeat, sleep, exercise, fitness, heart rhythm, steps, and a variety of body metrics. However, the ability to track one’s period (a pretty useful application for Apple’s female audience) wasn’t introduced until 2019, likely because it didn’t occur to Apple that the smartwatch could serve this purpose. The same goes for the AirPods. The AirPods have as many microphones and as advanced processing power as Apple. They can analyze real-world sounds, calculate noise cancellation algorithms and even function as hearing aids. But it’s unlikely that this was ever thought of by Apple’s marketing or design team. Luckily, in a meeting room somewhere on the other side of the planet in Tokyo, the idea came to Owen Song, founder of Olive Union.
Designer: Owen Song
Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $549 (45% off). Hurry, only 9 left! Raised over $150,000.
The Olive Max are an inclusive pair of TWS earbuds designed to suit people who have normal to severe hearing loss. For starters, the Olive Max come with a major boost in their volume capabilities, with now the ability to be 150% more loud, so people with hearing loss can easily listen to audio. Simultaneously, the Olive Max’s noise reduction algorithm comes with its own improvements, bringing stray noise down by 13 decibels, so you can focus on just the right sounds without any of that annoying background noise.
The Olive Max can be used as both hearing aids and audio playback devices. It is compatible with any smartphone. The Olive Max pairs with your phone using the Olive app, guiding you through a short, 5-minute hearing test. During this time each individual earpiece gets calibrated to suit your hearing (some people with hearing loss in only one ear can easily make one earpiece louder than the other to compensate). Once you’re done calibrating the Olive Max, they’re intuitive and easy to use, whether you’re listening to music, conversations, the world around you, or all of them combined! You can control music playback and adjust volume for external noises, voices and music. The app also allows you to configure noise cancellation according to your preferences.
While the Olive Max gives you advanced control over what you hear, its standout feature is what the company calls ‘Adaptive Hearing’. Olive Max can now automatically adjust the noise level based on where you are. These earphones can capture outside sound with their microphones, and will identify various noises depending on where you are, whether it’s at home or in noisy restaurants, the office, on the street, etc. The earphones then analyse the sound and determine which sounds are important and external chatter. They isolate/amplify important noises and muffle/attenuate unimportant ones.
The Olive Max is able to detect the differences between you and your colleagues while you are presenting. It can also adjust the focus of the Olive Max’s microphones so that they either drown out the noises or concentrate on what the people talking about. The earphones are exceptionally good at picking up on human voices, and whether you’re listening to someone talk to you in person, or your podcast host talk to you from across the internet, the Olive Max’s audio drivers help deliver crisp, clear vocal audio. The Olive Max, like all TWS earbuds, allows you to make phone calls and perform voice searches.
The Olive Max, which is third in Olive Union’s ‘hearables’ catalog after the Olive and Olive Pro. Designed to be powerful hearing-assisting devices in the avatar of incredibly sexy wearables, the Olive Max cleverly turn a ‘medical aid’ into a fashion-forward product that people will love to wear and perhaps even flaunt. The Olive Pro last year was subtly designed to look like the AirPods Pro. This year’s Olive Max is larger and has a bigger battery. It also comes with ear hooks, which provide a snug fit. Earpieces are also fitted with silicone tips, which allow the Olive Max to be worn in any active environment. This makes it the most sport-friendly and modern-looking smart hearing aid.
While their internal tech is pretty impressive, I can’t help but keep going back to their design, which shines across as a beacon for inclusivity. Pop the Olive Max on and there’s absolutely no way you’ll know that they’re hearing aids. They are truly hearing aids, and it would be too restrictive to call them that. The Olive Max’s cost is a further proof of this inclusive attitude. Unlike hearing aids that can easily go into thousands of dollars, the Olive Max are priced like your average pair of TWS earbuds, with a 45% discounted tag of $299 USD. The Olive Max is currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo, and the company hopes to have production begin soon after, with worldwide deliveries in November 2022.
Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $549 (45% off). Hurry, only 9 left! Raised over $150,000.