The AAVAA Project

Naeem is an accomplished scientist, driven by his passion for humanity and love for art. He has studied and performed research around the world in Neuroscience, Human Movement Science, Machine Learning, and Biomedical Engineering. 

His expertise led him to form several start-ups around assessing and improving human health. His previous start-up, monitoring mental and physical health of elderly people using AI, received acclaim from the Health Minister of Quebec. His current start-up, AAVAA, culminates his experiences and passions in building a solution to one of the most widespread challenges of human health: hearing impairment. 

Alongside Naeem’s passion for science and technology, he has pursued his love for art in its many forms, from composing several songs which were featured in different international art events such as Montreal Nuit Blanche Festival, to publishing collections of short stories and poems. 

As the world’s volume increases, the impaired listener has less control over sounds that are delivered to them through their hearing assistance devices. This requires this huge population to rely on tragically limited amplification techniques. Not only do people with hearing impairment need a solution, but also people conscious about choosing the sounds they hear. My team and I are committed to solving this problem, and propose project AAVAA, which is creating a smart hearing device that gives users full control of their auditory environment by seamlessly interpreting brain and biosignals to understand the sounds of interest of the user, and enhance what users want to hear. In doing so, AAVAA will elevate humanity by restoring control over noise pollution, strengthening communication between family members and communities, and particularly improving the quality of life for a social demographic largely dismissed by society: the elderly. 

We are an auditory species, yet 466 million people suffer from hearing impairment, causing social isolation and, for over 11% of these people, even severe depression, not to mention the millions more who are frustrated with noisy environments and unwanted sounds. Of this worldwide issue, only a fraction of individuals have the means to acquire hearing aids, and of those, 85% abandon their devices after the first year. This low acceptance rate begs for a solution that not only amplifies sounds, as traditional hearing aids do, but also is intelligent enough to amplify desired sounds. AAVAA is on a mission to connect people, despite their hearing abilities. Instead of making an inaccessible device bound to frustrating doctor visits, AAVAA proposes to do so by capitalizing from the 37.6% compounded annual growth rate of wireless listening devices. By returning the natural ability to hear to the individual, AAVAA will give back the opportunity to those who have been marginalized because they cannot converse as freely with others.

Imagine having lunch with a business client and trying to hear their voice over the noises of the restaurant. Now imagine, instead of having to lean forward or assume half of the conversation based on context clues, that you are able to filter out unwanted noises just by concentrating on the client’s voice, or switching attention to the waiter just by shifting your gaze. 

Our core technology interprets a person’s brain waves and biosignals in order to infer what sound among many sounds the user is paying attention to. Our technology is the specific method of translating these signals into information that a device can use to identify the user’s sounds of interest, and then amplify those signals using conversation enhancement techniques. Using cutting-edge machine learning and signal processing methods, this process is performed live.  

AAVAA proposes a paradigm shift solution to traditional hearing assistance options, such as hearing aids. Instead of a highly specialized, professionally adjusted medical device, AAVAA is making a consumer electronic device, much like a wireless earphone for playing music, that is both accessible and affordable. We want to not only create a hearing solution, but create a hearing revolution. 

When hearing impairment is discussed, the automatic picture that comes to mind is an elderly family member. Though it is true that 1 in 3 seniors suffer from disabling hearing loss, we often forget the many of us who have mild to moderate hearing impairment, up to 15% of adults, as well as the 34 million children with hearing impairment. By bridging the hearing gap, each of these groups will be able to participate more confidently in their schools, work places, and communities. But first, we must understand the needs of these unique groups of hearing impaired individuals. We need to be there with them, observe their lifestyles, and hear their world. A third grader grasping for the teacher’s instructions past his rowdy classmates has vastly different needs than a grandmother stooping down to her little one’s whisper. To engage the users, at each stage of development, we are getting their feedback through user tests in their everyday scenarios to ensure a solution that takes their needs and wants into consideration. As we understand and develop a solution to take away this communication barrier, we will see dramatic improvements in their mental health, confidence, wellbeing, and social health and independence. 

Every country, economic class, and age group includes people with hearing impairment, people who are unable or unconfident to contribute to their society’s evolution. AAVAA uniquely stands to address each Elevate dimension. By using recent advancements in technology, AAVAA will elevate opportunities for all who value clear communication. As it gains familiarity, it will build awareness of the debilitating social effects of hearing loss, while changing people’s behaviors by confronting the stigma around hearing aids, and infusing society with ideas of the few and the wisdom of the elderly.

The AAVAA Project began as I was ruminating on how to best serve my community using my expertise. I was finishing my postdoc, having worked in academia for several years, and wanted to have a more direct impact in people’s lives. I was passionate about helping the growing population of vulnerable seniors, so my first approach was to create a wearable and a chatbot, called AiFriend, that would track both the mental health as well as physical health for seniors in order to improve their quality of life. 

While AiFriend tried to address these problems, through countless hours of personal interactions and research, I quickly identified a root cause for degenerating mental health, one that I was uniquely positioned to address: hearing isolation, the destructive segregating of people who struggle to hear and participate in conversations, which quickly morphs into depression. As a neuroscientist and having studied the effects of sound on the brain, I began investigating how neuroscience and biomedical engineering could be used to develop a solution that would put hearing back in the ears of those needing assistance, and AAVAA was born. 

I remember sitting around the lunch table with my family as a kid while my parents and grandparents were discussing grown-up things. As the conversation progressed, so did my grandfather’s frustration, and eventually he reached up to remove his newly purchased hearing aid. His device did not address his hearing impairment, and I witnessed firsthand how it affected not only my grandfather, but my entire family’s lunch. With all the advances in science, why have we not solved this problem for those who have so much to give back, yet lack the opportunity?

This and many other instances became the seed for AAVAA, a project designed to help people in similar situations not become distracted or frustrated by a natural part of life. As I entered university, I sought to learn about the human body, its limitations, and technologies to compensate for them. I was driven to study the human brain and its responses to stimuli, and eventually aligned my background to create a solution for people like my grandfather and those around the lunch table. Though my grandfather has since passed away, AAVAA turns his memory into a legacy and tribute to all others suffering from similar situations. 

AAVAA is a multidisciplinary project, requiring acute technical expertise in neuroscience, signal processing, and machine learning. While working at the International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research as a postdoc, I developed a strong understanding in various methods of signal processing and artificial intelligence that can extract valuable information noninvasively from the complex signals of the brain as they relate to auditory cues. My research and background in understanding the brain's signals using computational methods and biomedical engineering have provided incredible exposure to understanding the capabilities, and limitations, of each vein of research, knowing where to supplement a technology with another approach to create an effective solution. 

Having studied at centers for neuroscience and biomedical engineering in different laboratories in Finland, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Italy, and Sweden, I have worked alongside many top neuroscience, physiology, and audiology researchers and engineers. Now in Montreal, an international hub for neuroscience and AI, I can involve this great network for collaborations with leading researchers from around the world.

Though I have unique experiences to deliver this project, I am only one piece of the AAVAA picture. I am surrounded by a highly qualified team of problem-solvers with complementary backgrounds. My co-founder, Lex Schindler, comes from mechanical engineering and medical devices, with experience in robotics and AI start-ups from the heart of Silicon Valley. Additionally, we have a small, talented team of engineers from embedded systems design, 3D modeling, audio enhancement, and marketing backgrounds. Together, we can make AAVAA a reality.

We are the first-of-its-kind start-up to develop algorithms that interpret non-invasive brain signals; and thus, we are the first to face the challenges of transplanting this technology from academia to a scalable market. The brain is an extremely complex system, and much of neuroscience research is not yet technologically ready for robust implementation in consumer devices. Instead of seeing this as a roadblock, we strategized a systematic approach to fuse multiple sensors for the AAVAA solution in order to select the best indicator of attention among many signals. By developing this sensor fusion approach, we leverage multiple signals that on their own are not adequate, but combined, create an effective solution that details which sensors are most indicative of attention for each situation. This approach requires a strong, diverse team to handle each aspect of development. 
In addition, we are involving several academic and industrial partners through collaborative research in order to mitigate the technology risks by infusing our team with their expertise. This approach is innovative and multidimensional, shows added traction and interest, and, by incorporating several technologies to solve a multifaceted problem, results in reduced risk.

As I was ending my career in university, I wanted to give back to the community I loved and share lessons I had learned. I brainstormed a forum, which received such interest that it evolved into a four-month Neuro-Hacking workshop aimed to fortify younger neuroscientists and entrepreneurs. It created a space to share ideas regarding how to bring neuroscience concepts to the larger community, how to avoid common mistakes of neuroscientists, and how to incorporate disruptive technologies from outside the traditional curriculum. Each session, I introduced a new complementary technology to neuroscience, and everyone shared brilliant insights while discussing possible applications. To commemorate our workshop, I invited each student to ideate and challenge experiment protocols, select and perform one, analyze the data, and write results. 

Leading these students by inspiring them toward creative problem-solving and encouraging them through providing opportunities yielded incredible outcomes. This voluntary workshop gave them confidence to create their own disruptive ideas and present them to experienced professors, many ideas evolving to become research theses. These students, some of whom are now around the world pursuing impactful careers, continue to send me updates on their successes and ask my advice on professional decisions. 

Imagine sitting across from a friend in a coffee shop, straining to hear the conversation over the music and reverberation. Now imagine a device that sits comfortably in your ear which dampens the ambient noises and allows you to listen clearly to your friend, then the waiter, then the music, all while you continue to eat. 

Our unique technology disentangles the sounds from the environment and by using brain activity and other biosignals, creates a seamless conversation, allowing you to define what you hear, just as naturally as if your brain were processing the sounds without any help. We are the first company using brain-reading technology for noninvasive consumer and medical applications involving a user’s physical environment. 

Instead of extrapolating from the environment, our unique innovation at AAVAA understands the attention of the user in their environment in order to enhance exactly what sounds are of interest. Instead of using manual commands from the user or assumptive cues from the environment, our disruptive technology goes straight to the brain to understand the user’s focus of attention. This provides a seamless and user-friendly interaction between man and machine, and requires little to no specialized training.

Though some devices use conversation enhancing technology, no control is given to the user to select which sounds are desired to hear. Large hearing aid companies have been investigating how to solve this problem, yet none have identified a technology robust enough to be used in real-life scenarios.

AAVAA will allow all people to comfortably hold conversations, independent of their environment. Not only will this technology directly impact people with hearing impairment by providing the ability to hear what they want, but it also gives traditional consumers the opportunity to control their auditory environments. 

Our immediate activities focus on research and development of algorithms to decode a user’s attention based on brain and biosignals in real-time. As our technology becomes more robust, we will incorporate its software into AAVAA devices and others’ devices through partnerships. This will introduce a new line of brain-interpreting technology into a public market, and raise awareness of the applications of neuroscience. It will also foster a wider public awareness of the everyday challenges associated with hearing impairment, and promote a more inclusive society for those suffering from it. 

In the mid term, with the introduction of the AAVAA hearing device, AAVAA’s attention-driven technology will guide the new over-the-counter movement of hearing assistance to provide solutions that can be personalized to every individual’s hearing needs. Thousands of people categorically held back by the lack of intelligent hearing solutions will now be able to participate in daily activities and conversations, no longer limited by their hearing ability. Additionally, our software development solution for researching brain activity for consumer devices will open the door for many novel technologies and applications as we enable groups to use brainwaves as valuable input to create their solutions, introducing the much anticipated brain-computer interfacing. Not only will AAVAA help the hearing industry, but it will revolutionize personal electronics. 

In the long term, by providing an economically and socially accessible solution to hearing problems, the stigma around hearing aids and hearing disability (Jenstad & Moon, 2011) will be replaced with a consciousness for hearing health, and anyone who can afford a bluetooth device will be able to afford to change their life for the better. We will reduce the number of those who experience social isolation and depression (Li et al, 2014), as well as other debilitating mental issues (Crealey & O’Neill, 2014), by creating an audio-inclusive society. 

AAVAA is in the research and development stage of its life changing technology, and has filed patents in North America and Europe, positioning itself to be able to first address people in these countries who will need assistance. Currently, we are working with and serving the soon-to-be hundreds of participants who will participate in our research projects. As we create an SDK, we expect to directly serve as many as 100 researchers in different labs and companies around the world, not to mention those who will participate in their studies to create additional solutions concerning brain and hearing health. Within five years, with the launch of the first AAVAA product, we will initially reach at least 20,000 users who have not found adequate solutions to their hearing problems, as well as their families and communities as our users begin to more fully interact with their communities. 

Within a year, we would like to be a beacon for life-changing innovation towards a more attention-driven world. To get there, we will have performed critical attention studies to understand and direct efforts for real-life scenarios, and have developed software to use these findings in many applications. We plan to support many stages of research and development by establishing industrial and academic partnerships to uplift all fields with our technology, from the automotive industry to virtual reality. On one hand, attention-finding can save lives by enhancing a driver’s attention in a car; on the other hand, it can make a VR experience more realistic and enjoyable. Alongside the big BCI companies, Neuralink and Kernel, we are determined to elevate humanity, recognizing that this is the first technology capable of delivering accurate information about what someone is paying attention to in their physical environment. Just as my Neuro-Hacking workshop, we would like our attention defining technology to inspire creative problem-solving and open opportunities to groups around the world and at all stages of research. 

Within five years, we will have created an accessible and affordable device that uses brain signals in order to identify and enhance sounds of interest for a user. We want to reach the ears of people around the world at all socioeconomic levels. This device is our means of providing a solution for the millions around the globe with hearing impairment, heightening control for those who value clear communication, and trailblazing a new method of human-computer interaction. 

As we begin to ship products, we expect to find resistance from a hearing aid distribution channel built on appointments and professional evaluations. Our market barrier is in the form of five dominant hearing aid companies, their distribution chains, and clinics from whom our solution would liberate many consumers. 

To differentiate from these traditional hearing assistance devices, we use a breakthrough new technology. Technological readiness then becomes another barrier to accomplishing our goals to ship a product. Because each person’s brain signals are unique, heavy research is still required to develop attention interpreting models that can adapt to a user while remaining computationally light enough to identify attention in an acceptable time frame. 

In order to push the forefront of this technology field, our next and most immediate barrier is the need for resources for technology development. Investigating and developing brain reading technology is no small feat, and doing so in a way that is accessible enough to be produced to reach potentially millions of users is all the more challenging. From the start, considerations have to be made to develop the optimal technology and team to foster realistic implementation into affordable consumer devices. 

A final barrier concerns the stigmata around both hearing aids and “reading minds”. While younger generations might embrace such novel technology, consumer implementation of neuroscience technologies is still considered science-fiction, and explaining our product in a way that allows people to feel comfortable will open the ability for older generations to adopt the device, as well. 

With the advent of the over-the-counter movement by the FDA, we will see a surge in companies who are seeking to differentiate themselves. Our brain-sensing and attention-interpreting technology can be a complementary step to noise cancellation, conversation enhancement, and sound separation, all of which are leading areas of research in hearing assistance companies.

As part of our research strategy, we are partnering with world-renowned research groups both internationally and locally, as well as industrial partners whose solutions we can complement with auditory attention.  From the beginning, this is the focus of our work: making algorithms low-computation, real-time, and high-accuracy. A strong technology advisory board will support our multifaceted solution. 

Our immediate course of action is to invest time into writing grant and competition proposals to provide a longer runway and add additional experts and resources for research and development while at a lower stage of technological readiness. In the coming months, we are beginning our search for strategic investors who will be interested in supporting AAVAA, from many of whom we have received feedback expressing interest. 

In terms of user acceptance, design becomes an important factor of our project. The device must be approachable and minimalistic. In designing marketing efforts, we will use exceptional quality, unique interfacing, and educational marketing to differentiate and promote our technology and how it works. 

TandemLaunch: Our advisor and first investor is TandemLaunch, a Montreal-based Venture Capital firm that specializes in the commercialization of deep technology solutions for large market problems. 

McGill University: We have partnered with several researchers, including the associate dean of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University to collaborate on our research findings. 

Mitacs: We have recently received a grant through Mitacs to support researchers in collaboration with Canadian universities. 

University of Montreal: We have a close relationship with the BRAMS Laboratory for research in auditory neuroscience, and intend to collaborate with them in terms of co-supervision and hosting students in the near future. 

Prima: We are in the process of collaborating with experts through Prima, a grant agency organized to foster development of projects related to AI, material science, and 3D modeling design. 

Our business model reflects the goals we have set for the next five years.

By creating AAVAA’s hearing device, our B2C go-to-market strategy reaches customers in North America and Europe, who are able to benefit from added hearing assistance that allows them to seamlessly choose what sounds they hear. As a consumer electronic device, the AAVAA product will also reach audiophiles and techies who are interested in cutting edge audio technology that incorporates brain waves. We project to reach $5,000,000 in sales from the product lines in the first 5 years.

As the first of its kind in attention analysis in terms of consumer-grade recording, we will also build an SDK prototyping solution that can be used by BCI companies, researchers, and academics. Though we expect only around $200,000 from this effort, we believe it will accelerate the development of attention solutions in many fields and applications. 

Since we will be a leading group investigating attention, we also want to provide a B2B software solution to companies who are interested in developing products based on user attention. Some relevant industries include:

VR/AR, where attention can be integrated into a device in order to better provide an immersive experience; 

automotive, where driver’s can be alerted to conditions that their attention might overlook; 

education, where attention is key for retention; and 

heavy machinery environments, where communication through noise suppression devices is necessary for worker safety. 

From these B2B efforts, we project to have 3 active partnerships in 5 years. 

Initially, we are looking for funding opportunities that will allow us to pursue our research and development efforts to advance our technological readiness with the end goal of a consumer electronic device in mind. These include our secured pre-seed investment, as well as grant and award opportunities. These funds will be used for team expansion, and equipment and resources for R&D efforts, studies, and marketing campaigns. In nine months, we will begin seeking series investments to support AAVAA, and by the release of the AAVAA device in three years, we will be earning revenue towards self-sufficiency. In conjunction with our B2C efforts, we seek to license our attention-interpreting and speech enhancement technologies to OEMs and ODMs that have use for understanding the attention of their users.

TandemLaunch: 440K USD in equity on November 2019

Mitacs: 50-75% of salary for 3 postdocs in a grant over a 2-year period

At this moment, we are seeking grants and prizes to provide capital to pursue our research and development efforts. We are looking for 450-550K by September 2020 in order to hire the appropriate experts, acquire and develop instrumentation, and work towards a consumer electronic device. 

AAVAA shows promise with several potential investors. This attention is promoted by the rising interest in over-the-counter hearing assistance devices planned to enter the market in the next two years. This marks a pivotal point in the hearing industry, as smaller companies who are more adept at providing personalized solutions begin to reach customers who have not found adequate solutions among the few leading brands. At this unique moment in hearing history, AAVAA is riding the over-the-counter trend as well as enabling technological trends regarding neuro-signal interpretation and machine learning. 

R&D: 104K USD

Operations: 20K USD

Salary: 321K USD

I believe that a voice alone is not enough to elevate humanity; each individual should also have an ear to listen. In this, I share the Elevate Prize’s vision, seeking to provide this opportunity to a marginalized demographic, seniors and hearing impaired people, using the advances in neuroscience, signal processing, and AI. This approach to help those who want to strengthen their listening abilities can most effectively be accomplished by breaking down traditional options and providing a technological paradigm-shift solution. The Elevate Prize would be instrumental in accomplishing this vision. 

Technologically, it would provide access to world-class researchers and thought leaders, who can provide critical insights on the development of such a novel technology for global consumer use. 

For resources, the financial contribution would enable us to quickly investigate and implement solutions that are non-obvious yet game changing, to create a robust brain-reading solution that can be used in real-time. 

In terms of market readiness, the MIT Elevate Award would provide a level of legitimacy to what is presently viewed as a science-fiction technology to those who are not familiar with the abilities of neuroscience and machine learning. This would highlight AAVAA’s mission internationally, and propel it closer to realization. 

Because of the multidisciplinary nature of our research and development, we would like to partner with leading groups in the fields of AI, signal processing, neuroscience, and audio enhancement, such as research groups at McGill University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Montreal, the Allen Institute, and others. 

Additionally, we are looking to partner in development with companies in hearing and audio technology, from promising technology such as those developed at our incubator sister companies, such as Deeplite, who can help us to develop optimized deep learning algorithms, Soundskrit, who can develop specialized sound separation microphones, and Ora, who can deliver an elevated audio experience using graphene; to large corporations such as Sony, Samsung, Apple, Bose, Oticon, Starkey, and similar companies interested in this space, as well as BCI companies, such as Kernel and Neuralink.