New software converts wi-fi signals into sound waves

Thanks to a new software even a deaf person can now listen to sounds coming via Wi-Fi signals, reported. The software is being developed by London-based science writer Frank Swain, who has been slowly going deaf since his 20s.

The Phantom Terrains software, as it is called, works with iPhones and hearing aids to turn local Wi-Fi signals into audible soundscapes.

According to Swain, unlike glasses which simply bring the world into focus, digital hearing aids strive to recreate the soundscape, amplifying useful sound and suppressing noise.

The system works by using the iPhone's Wi-Fi sensors to analyse data from nearby fields.

The decoded data is turned into sound patterns that are wirelessly transmitted to Swain's customised hearing aids.

It was possible with one's iPhone ones's pocket, to create a kind of aural map blended in with the normal output of the hearing aids.

The 32-year-old Swain developed the software in association with sound artist Daniel Jones.

The journal New Scientist has reported the findings.

According to Discovery News, with his smartphone in his pocket, Swain gets a kind of aural map blended in with the normal output of the hearing aids.

The system interprets distant signals as background clicks that vary with proximity, while closer and more powerful signals reveal their own network ID information in a looped melody.

"In essence, I am listening to a computer's interpretation of the soundscape. I am intrigued to see how far this editorialisation of my hearing can be pushed.

"If I have to spend my life listening to an interpretative version of the world, what elements could I add?" Swain wrote in the latest issue of New Scientist.