- In this video I'm interviewing
Starkey Hearing Technology's Chief Technology Officer
and Executive Vice President of Engineering Achine Bhowmik,
so you can get an inside look at how techie
the hearing aid industry really is.
Comin' up. (mellow hip hop instrumental)
Hi guys, Dr. Cliff here.
I actually have the Chief Technology Officer
from Starkey here, Achin Bhomik.
Thank you Dr. Bhomik for taking time to speak with me today.
Basically, I want to really know if it's more fun working
at Starkey, or if it was more fun working at Intel.
- Okay, so first it's great
to meet with you Dr. Cliff Olson.
(Dr Cliff laughs) I really like your video
and the energy-- - I appreciate that.
That you bring to our community.
Back to the question, I think I spent 17 years at Intel.
And the last part of that job was a leadership role
of perceptual computing, so I was Vice President
of Perceptual Computing at Intel, which is the domain
of sensing and artificial intelligence.
The whole idea was to build technologies
that enable computers and machines to be smart.
- And so we're not talking about our laptops
that we're working with, we're talking about--
- As well. things way beyond that too?
- Think of whole host of devices,
even your mobile phones and laptops,
why do you need to put in a password to log in?
You should be able to look at the device,
and it recognizes-- - I completely agree.
That's awesome, right, yes. (Dr. Cliff laughs)
It required advances in AI to recognize you,
but then extend this discussion further.
Smart cameras, cameras that should know
the occupants of the home, so if somebody
breaks in who's not welcome, it should alert you,
"I don't recognize somebody who's at home," right?
Smart cameras, robots and drones...
that would navigate by themselves.
To cars that would drive by themselves.
That was the domain that I was working on.
Sensors and artificial intelligence.
- Technology that eventually becomes smarter
than us, and eventually takes us all down.
- And it's all, it's helping us today.
Hopefully it stays that way.
- Right (laughs).
- And for Intel, if you look at Intel traditionally
was a company focused on providing processors
for PCs and then servers in the data centers.
I was talking about that to you.
But my focus was on well, can we evolve this process
of technology along with sensors and machine learning
to bring about this new area of smarter more intelligent
machines and devices? - Right, and I think that
that translates really well to your role now at Starkey.
I don't think it's any secret that Starkey has really
tried to push this, "Let's use artificial intelligence
"inside of the hearing technology."
And then do things more than just focus on hearing.
How long have you been with Starkey now?
- I joined in the summer of 2017,
so then more than two and a half years now.
And that is exactly why I came to Starkey.
In fact I'll tell you honestly,
when I got contacted by Starkey's recruiters,
it was a plain and simple no.
I'm not interested. - Really?
I mean, why would I? - You didn't
entertain it at all?
- I was having a lot of fun at Intel,
it's one of the best companies on the planet.
I was having a lot of fun.
Lot of good friends there and my team.
I was leading of team of more than 1400 people
around the world developing breakthrough technologies,
I had no reason to look around for jobs or go look...
My friends who rooted around and their (murmurs)
at Intel, then Apple, Google, Facebook...
I spent 17 years there, and when this opportunity
came about, and I spent two months interacting
with Starkey executives to understand the opportunity.
Most important, conversations with Mr. Bill Austin.
- Okay, yeah. And it turns out,
it's a long story so I need to cut it short,
but it turns out I knew about his work
way back in my graduate school.
- No kidding!
That was 17 years, before I
got this call from the recruiter.
When I wrote a little white paper
comparing and contrasting public companies
from private companies, particularly passionate
founders who started those companies,
and some decide to go public and some stay private.
I pick two companies that are public,
went public Intel and Microsoft.
And on the private front it was Bose.
I was a big fan of Professor Amar Bose
and Bill Austin. - No kidding!
And but then I had nothing to do with Mr. Austin
until I got this call, and after saying, "No,"
that evening as I was driving back home,
I thought, "Starkey hmmm, is that
is that Mr. Austin's company?" - Really?
I called back the recruiter and asked him,
"Is this Bill Austin's Starkey?"
And he said, "Yeah, would you like to talk to him?"
That's how the-- - No kidding!
conversation started and when I came visited
this was not a formal interview.
This was a discussion and a dialogue between
the two of us, and he was saying,
"Explain to me what you're doing with AI?"
And then he said, "I'm going to tell you about my work."
And then he said, "I can create a playground for you
"where you are working on same technologies,
"but instead of making smart machines,
"you are helping people lead better lives."
I didn't know I had it in me.
I was, it created an emotional appeal for me.
- You've been a busy guy then if it's only
been a couple years since you've been
with Starkey because you guys just announced
a year ago the Livio Ai came out,
which was groundbreaking technology
incorporating motion sensors into the hearing aids
to accomplish things more than helping someone hear better,
but now we're talking fall detection,
an actual engagement in movement
from a perspective of getting people more socially active.
Getting people more physically active,
so you improve their overall health.
And so now, you guys, just today
announced the Livio Edge AI
and the custom product that is actually rechargeable.
How long did it take you guys to work to develop that stuff?
- Yeah, so I've heard comments like, "We're moving
"at Silicon Valley pace." - Right (chuckles).
Right, in fact, even before I joined
we had through the discussions with Mr. Austin,
the vision became really clear.
What I shared today about our vision of using technology,
such as AI to improve the sound quality and experience
of hearing, but then go beyond in what we call (mumbles).
Make the device, while you're wearing it to be
a continuous monitor and tracker for your health.
And make this a gateway to information
and become your personal assistant.
This vision was clarified right about
even before I was joining,
and after that it was the good old engineering.
We beefed up our teams.
We created new expertise, hiring new talent.
Brandon mentioned this morning about our
establishment of in advance starting
the center in Tel Aviv, Israel.
That is a set of talent that
had never been in the hearing aid industry.
Because we are planning to do things there
that have never been done in the hearing aid industry.
- Here's the problem for me.
My job is to take this complex stuff,
and break it down to simple forms.
But now you guys are starting to branch out
into areas that aren't necessarily my area of expertise.
And I think it's great though.
We're all eventually going to adapt
to this being the new norm, I think is
not just focusing on the hearing side
but focusing on the total health
of the individual in general.
One thing I want you to touch base
a little bit more on is the actual
custom product side of this, with recharge ability.
And from what I understand, that custom product
is gonna have a lot of the AI benefits
that we had with the Livio AI
behind your device, right?
- Right, in fact the most common question
that I was getting from customers for the last year
after the introduction of Livio is,
"When is this going to be custom?"
And "Could that be rechargeable?"
That was the big question, - Yeah, that's...
"Could it connect to the phones?"
And all that, and by the way to that
about why should hearing aid
do all of these things?
This morning I gave the example of how phones.
We used to think phones are just phones,
it just makes phone calls, that's it.
Today the phone is your GPS.
The phone is your camera.
The phone is your fitness tracker.
The phone has become your,
a device, one device in your life you cannot live without.
I think it's such a waste of (murmurs),
if your hearing aid is only amplifying sound.
It should do that as the primary job,
and do a very very good at that.
It needs to, but if it is sitting there,
why would it not measure your temperature?
Why would it not track your physical activity?
Why would it not, it's a sound-processing device,
why'd it not tell me how much social engagement have I had?
You saw all of the detrimental impact of loneliness
and lack of social engagement to overall human health.
There is no other device that I can think of
which is always with you and is always classifying sound.
And with machine learning, we can...
I think it's obvious,
particularly talk about fall-detection.
People are spending,
collectively people spending billions
of dollars in medical emergency systems.
- I know, I just saw those numbers,
and it is billions of dollars per year.
Just based off of the medical care
for individuals who have fallen.
And then of course, people actually die
from falling-- - Yes, and I'll tell you
something else.
I teach at Stanford, I'm an adjunct professor
with Stanford School of Medicine.
One of the preeminent experts
on human motion is Dr. Scott Delp.
And what he was saying is that,
"There is no way that any other sensory near the parts
of the body would have the same exaggerated response
"than your head."
And we have two of those sensors,
so the reason we are getting better fall-detection
than your traditional fall-detecting sensors
is because one, the head is pivoting around your waist
exaggerated movement, and the head doesn't behave badly.
It doesn't flail around, unlike your wrists.
Or your (murmurs) sensor, and we have two of them,
so it's looking out for false positives and false negatives.
Simply put, if I detect fall, if one of the AI systems
in the hearing aid detects fall, it's asking the other one,
"Hey, I think I fell, did you?"
We can do this double check
and reduce the false positives
and false negatives. - One of the thing
that a lot of my, not my patients,
but my patients' children who go in with them
to their appointments, they love the aspect
of the hearing aids connecting directly
with the phone for phone calls.
Because "I call mom, and she never answers."
And it's really because she can't either
get to the phone in time or can't hear the phone.
And incorporating that technology with hearing aids
to where you can call and directly have it go
to the hearing devices itself is great,
but this is kind of like another step up
for those individuals who are concerned
that their parents might fall,
and then be able to go and either seek help
for them or actually go check on them
themselves. - The peace of mind.
- Absolutely. I love my older relatives
to have the device so it'd be a peace of mind.
For the same reasons we have video monitors
for watching home, so you don't have to worry all
the time about mom falling down and hurting herself.
Or sitting idle all day,
disconnected from social engagement,
being lonely. - And now you can even
track that side of it without having
to fall, right? - Yes.
You can actually track that if you're the child
of someone who has hearing aids, or the parent
of someone who has hearing aids, you can track
and see what their usage time is,
what their engagement scores are.
- This morning-- - Which is fantastic.
This morning we announced our
tribe care application. - Absolutely yeah,
talk about that. - Which allows the caregiver
now to benefit from-- - That's right, that's right.
Technology, yeah. - And I think that
that's a terrific route to go.
You guys are definitely thinking about
this in a way that not many other
companies are thinking about it.
And so I think your job's pretty
exciting here going forward.
In fact, I know you guys.
You guys just released this stuff.
I all ready know that you're
in your kitchen tryin' to concoct
the next great thing when it comes to hearing technology .
But I can't imagine you're ready
to share that-- - Right.
'cause you just shared with us
a earth-breaking, earth-shattering
material this morning, which I'm excited
to get my hands on those devices
and actually check 'em out myself.
- And the only thing I'll tell you is
yes, you're totally right.
The technology, I think that we're barely scratching
the surface of what's possible in terms of...
I have all these conversations with customers,
this is the event where I get a lot of feedback,
when I know what the complaints are,
the engineering side is concocting the solutions for it.
I think the, I mentioned this morning
about infusing AI in every aspect of the product.
From the sound processing to tracking health,
to becoming your own very personal assistant
answering your questions, reminding you of medication.
We're just barely scratching the surface of
how much we can do with the device that's in your ear.
A very exciting future.
And you said, "The ear's an even better spot
"than the wrists to have
all this information." - Yes, I like to say,
"Ear is not the new wrist.
"That ear is better than wrist."
- Better than the wrist.
- Where do you measure temperature of the body?
Not on the wrist.
And we get much better biometrics data,
and we can deliver information.
It's a personal communication device
to manage your brain states.
The fascinating stuff
that we have now. - Right, absolutely.
I think you might have one
of the most interesting jobs
in America to be quite
honest with you. - I am extremely happy
and privileged-- - That's awesome.
To particularly the technology that we do.
Today I can proudly say,
"This helps people lead better lives."
- Absolutely. - Which is why I left.
- I think that's why we all do it because,
and you can see it, and you can see it.
And providers are the ones who are
on the front lines of seeing that.
But it doesn't take a lot for you guys
to catch wind of all of the amazing stuff
that's happening with these individuals
who have hearing loss, and eventually
who I truly believe this, who don't having hearing loss
and are gonna want to use this
technology in the future so...
- That's the biggest opportunity
for this industry collectively.
Removing the stigma from the hearing aids,
and all of these designs that we have now
with really cool looking devices around your ear.
- Yeah, I think the stigma's going away all ready.
No one reaches out to me saying, "Oh I really want
"to wear hearing devices, but they're just not cool."
Or "They make me feel like..."
People aren't thinking that way any more,
and I think that it's companies like Starkey
who are developing these products
that allow you to do more things
with them that's really fighting through that.
I really appreciate that side of it from you guys.
- Thank you very much. - Excellent.
Thanks for taking time with me today.
I'm sure this won't be the last time that we ever chat.
Guys, if you want to check out more information,
or you want to see more interviews,
make sure to go to drcliffaud.com
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