Headphone maker Audeze in Santa Ana is coming to the aid of patients bothered by the extra-loud noises made by MRI diagnostic machines.
Audeze said July 26 it is launching a new series of acoustic noise-cancellation headphones called CRBN, developed in collaboration with audio-visual communications company SMRT Image of Los Angeles and UCLA Professor Mark Cohen’s team at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
“These will cancel the noise, allow for patient-doctor communication and also allow patients to listen to music to help calm them down,” Audeze CEO Sankar Thiagasamudram told the Business Journal on Aug. 3. He said the products—officially called “electrostatic headphones”—are already being tested with patients.
Acoustic noise cancellation works by creating a signal that is opposite to the noise signal.
The offering adds to an already wide array of products and new offering for Audeze.
Last October, Audeze introduced the Penrose gaming headset for Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation PS5. The company also recently released a limited edition “Ribbon” driver headphone called the LCD-R, which sold out in three hours.
Audeze is best known for its Planar headphones used by musicians, sound engineers, and music lovers for their high-quality sound.
Audeze employs about 48 people directly and another 20 seasonally.
Jackhammer Loud
“MRI machines are extremely loud: their sound pressure levels can exceed 120 dB, similar to a jack hammer a few feet away,” the company says.
The CRBN uses “carbon nanotubes” with patented technology to help solve the issue for MRIs.
Most headphones cannot be used in MRI settings due to them having iron-based metal in them.
“What we set out to do at SMRT was create a tranquil patient experience within a very hostile environment,” says Tylor Garland, CEO of SMRT Image.
Company officials say the headphones will be integrated into the SMRT Image’s Lumica system, which will be launched in the final three months of this year.
Lumica in turn will be integrated into the MRI systems, according to Thiagasamudram.
As for the price, he says, “We have not decided this. It will most likely be a leased solution.”
Lumica provides images and movies in addition to audio and communication options, resulting in an immersive audiovisual experience that is both comforting and distracting for the anxious MRI patient, according to the companies.
Stress and anxiety can cause patients to abort an MRI scan, or to refuse studies altogether, according to Audeze.
In addition, “when patients do not remain still, motion artifacts often degrade the images and can even make the scans unusable for diagnostic purposes,” according to Audeze and Smart Image.
They added that when using the Lumica system, patients in a study “even reported decreases in the perceived exam duration.”
Audiophile Offering
The Audeze team is also releasing a version of the headphones for musicians and other “audiophile” connoisseurs of high-fidelity sound.
Those headphones, handmade in the company’s Santa Ana factory, will sell for $4,500 a pair, according to an Audeze spokesman.
