New iOS 14 Feature Lets the iPhone Alert You If It Hears Sounds Like a Doorbell or Fire Alarm

Apple unveiled iOS 14 at its annual WWDC keynote yesterday, and among the small but important new features is sound recognition. First spotted by a Reddit user, this new accessibility tool could significantly benefit people who are hard of hearing or deaf. From a report: The iPhone can be set to constantly listen for 14 different sounds, including a door knock, doorbell, sirens, smoke detector alarm, dog barking, a crying baby, and more. The feature can be found in the accessibility section of iOS 14's settings menu. Other tech companies, including Amazon and Google, have used AI-based sound recognition as a personal safety measure. You can set Echo speakers to detect the sound of alarms or broken glass as part of Amazon's Alexa Guard home security system, and Google uses the microphone on Pixel phones as part of its car crash-detection feature.

Great

[BringsApples]

A new frontier for false-positives to cause more alarm and confusion. JUST what we need today.

Re:Great

[dgatwood]

Most people with hearing issues get upgraded doorbells that flash a light. Same goes for fire alarms. I wouldn't trust a phone's machine learning for something safety-critical in a million years. But I guess it's a nice backup, and for the other things, it might make sense.

Re:

[Aristos Mazer]

Most people with hearing issues who can afford it have upgraded devices. A cell phone, even a relatively expensive iPhone, is more likely to be owned by folks at the lower end of the economy than specialized devices. Missing a doorbell is relatively minor compared to paying the gas bill, and having a louder fire alarm covers a rare possibility that may not be worth the cost-benefit analysis. All those upgrade expenses have to be dealt with in priority order. If the single device already likely in the person

Re:Great

[dgatwood]

Landlords who get Section 8 funding (i.e. anybody renting to people who likely can't afford those upgraded devices) are required by law to install them upon request. And there are a number of programs that will provide special fire alarms for the hard of hearing at no cost for the folks who aren't covered by that law. And of course, commercial office buildings and other public places are generally required by law to have upgraded fire alarms.

And a wireless doorbell strobe takes ten minutes to install and costs $35 at Home Depot. We're not talking about something that's out of reach for the average person here.

I'm not saying that coverage is 100% perfect, but when I say "most", I really do mean "most", not just "most who can afford it". The ones who don't have it are almost certainly people who don't know about those technologies or aren't sufficiently hard of hearing to feel that they are worth bothering with. The former group represent an outreach failure. The latter group is moot.

Re:

[BringsApples]

Great point. It's another great point to mention that this iPhone bullshit isn't going to be required by law, because of how inferior it's technology is to what already exists. What if your phone is in the other room charging and you can't see it?

Re:

[Paradise Pete]

What if your phone is in the other room charging and you can't see it?

So your argument is that if it's not flawless it's bullshit? If my phone were in the other room I'd get the notification on my watch. In fact, I could intentionally leave my phone someplace where I wouldn't otherwise hear some event, and now I'll get a tap on the wrist if it happens. Yup, total bullshit. Why do they even try?

Re:

[BringsApples]

I wasn't aware that all iPohne users also had that watch. Sorry. ...or is that yet another device that they'd have to purchase, in addition to all of the other devices that they already have in their homes (in some cases, built into the building itself - a requirement by law) that accomplish the same thing?

Your reaction makes methink you're simply an iFanboy.

Re:

[lengel]

You do realize that almost every one of these devices is covered under health insurance? Also, by definition the people who need it have been classified as having a disability and so a world of government programs also cover them quite often. Lastly, they are more expensive than you might think because they have been classified as lifesaving medical devices and therefore need large liability insurance. If the smoke detector goes off and the alert mechanism fails there is hell to pay. That is a world of diff

Re:

[Aristos Mazer]

I do realize that. And yet I know there are plenty of people who haven't even gotten a hearing aid because of the financial burden, much less other accessories. It's remarkable how hard it is to connect those various programs to the people who they are intended to benefit.

Re:

[slazzy]

While that might be true, not all people with hearing issues stay at home 24/7... could be useful while they are at school, work, friends house, on vacation etc. Could be useful for people like me who are working with my headphones on with my laptop, phone/watch vibrates to let me know there's something going on. I also wouldn't trust my life to it, but as a backup it's a nice idea.Then again, I'm already trusting my life to my phone vibrating when my blood sugar goes low especially while sleeping (Dexcom C

Re:

[slash.jit]

And for people who are busy gaming or watching cat videos with their noise cancelling headsets on :-)

Re:

[The Grassy Knoll]

Obligatory Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
With added spoof of Tomorrow's World :-)

.

Re:

[gnasher719]

Most people with hearing issues get upgraded doorbells that flash a light. Same goes for fire alarms.

If you thought about it for more than a millisecond, then you would figure out that whenever people with hearing issues visit someone else, or go to work, or go to a hotel room, none of these things are upgraded for them.

Not a good idea

[nospam007]

If you watch TV a lot, you'll notice that there are 7.5 Billion people on the planet and they all have the same doorbell and the same iPhone ring.

Re:

[geekmux]

If you watch TV a lot, you'll notice that there are 7.5 Billion people on the planet and they all have the same doorbell and the same iPhone ring.

If you live on Earth, you'll notice that there are 7.5 Billion people on the planet, and all of them still believe these always-listening features are created for some innocent benefit made up by marketeers.

TL; DR - Mass Ignorance. A prerequisite to Mass Surveillance.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

TL; DR - Mass Ignorance. A prerequisite to Mass Surveillance.

Didn't we hit those two milestones a few years ago already? Reality TV, Facebook, Twitter and other media shaping the public opinion into whatever they want them to be.

Facebook, Google and Amazon always-on listening devices paid by those being spied upon, etc.

I has to be repeated again: Idiocracy seems more and more like a documentary from the future.

Re:

[geekmux]

TL; DR - Mass Ignorance. A prerequisite to Mass Surveillance.

Didn't we hit those two milestones a few years ago already? Reality TV, Facebook, Twitter and other media shaping the public opinion into whatever they want them to be.

Facebook, Google and Amazon always-on listening devices paid by those being spied upon, etc...

You are correct, but Ignorance has changed a bit.

Ignorance in the 20th Century still created a desire to actually learn.

We now have nothing but Willful Ignorance, where consumers demand a more idiot-proof device instead.

We also don't have to wonder how Facebook, Twitter, and other media can warp public opinion without even breaking a sweat.

I has to be repeated again: Idiocracy seems more and more like a documentary from the future.

Some things are worth repeating. Helps at least keep the memory of Common F. Sense alive.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

If you live on Earth, you'll notice that there are 7.5 Billion people on the planet, and all of them still believe these always-listening features are created for some innocent benefit made up by marketeers.

Always listening has been around for over a decade now. It's been used to measure crowds who watch a game on TV, how many people listen to a radio station, etc. Including people who just happen to be walking by and hear some snippet of the TV or radio, that gets measured too.

It's even been used to figur

Re:

[antdude]

Also, it tricks Siri, Alexa, etc. too. So, yeah a bad idea.

next step

[OrangeTide]

Now answer the door for me, and tell whoever it is to go away.

can it get any dumber?

[dfghjk]

What will the phone use to alert me to sounds I didn't notice myself? A sound?

Sound like a poor substitute for a real problem and more an excuse for an always-on microphone. Disabled.

Re:

[Aristos Mazer]

Vibration and flashing -- the same things that cell phones with accessibility modes enabled already use.

Re:

[gnasher719]

Vibration and flashing -- the same things that cell phones with accessibility modes enabled already use.

And playing the sound through your headphones if your noise cancelling headphones are the reason why you missed something.

Re:

[spire3661]

If you have a smart watch on, you will get a haptic notification (vibration).

Really needed alert

[ellbee]

What something useful like banging on a wall or creaking bed springs from teenagers making love upstairs?

Remote vs. Local Processing

[Astramensis]

What isn't clear in the article is whether or not the sound recognition is processed internally by the device or whether the audio stream is sent to the 'cloud' for processing. I'm assuming the latter (a la Google, etc.).

On-board audio/speech recognition would be preferable for privacy reasons. Surveillance seems to be the price we pay for 'free' technology services.

Re:

[Camembert]

Apple seems to do a lot on device for privacy, they made a point about it in the wwdc keynote

Cue the pranksters in three, two..

[Fly Swatter]

Once the children discover this, be prepared to hear random noises to trigger this within crowds for the next few weeks.

It's not paranoia

[Kitkoan]

If your phone really is always listening.... Only way the phone could hear those sounds, by always listening

Noise cancelling headphones

[gnasher719]

I'm working from home, and I often wear noise cancelling headphones with music playing quite loud. I can't hear the doorbell. I might not hear a fire alarm. This is very useful.