Oraid Solutions Receives Grant for Advanced Microphone Technology

Three business-academic collaborations receive funding

28 January 2025

Oraid solutions have recieved a grant from https://interface-online.org.uk/

The latest round of the Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund (IICF) awarded three projects up to £10,000 each. The fund, supported by Interface and the Scottish Government, attracts investment through R&D with Scottish universities.

Oraid Solution’s project focuses on creating a low-powered, high-frequency microphone for hearing aids (HA) to improve sound clarity and speech recognition in noisy places. Standard hearing aid microphones only capture sounds up to 8 kHz, which causes them to miss important high-frequency signals needed to separate speech from background noise. This new microphone will capture up to 16 kHz while using less battery power and enhancing noise-cancelling functions. It also encourages the early use of hearing aids, as high-frequency loss often happens before more general hearing loss. This project meets an important need in Healthtech and aims to improve the quality of life for people with hearing impairment https://interface-online.org.uk/news/three-business-academic-collaborations-receive-funding/

Collaborating with the Electric and Electrical Engineering department at Strathclyde University gives us access to unique expertise in acoustics, engineering, and audiology that isn’t found in Australia, which is crucial for advancing HA technology. This partnership will boost innovation, speed up development, and help us create a digital circuit to effectively capture acoustic signals with high sensitivity and low power usage. The funding will enable us to develop a prototype of our custom circuit paired with a MEMS microphone for demonstrations. Our aim is to achieve high-quality audio capture while minimizing energy consumption, thus improving the performance and battery life of next-generation audio devices.
The Strathclyde team is highly skilled in modeling, creating, and characterizing small acoustic systems, particularly at low technology readiness levels (1-4). The funding would help us turn this idea into a bench-top prototype with reduced financial risk, allowing us cost-effective access to advanced facilities and expertise unavailable in Australia. Additionally, being based in Scotland gives us strategic access to the UK and EU markets.