SILENT WHISTLE

TitleSILENT WHISTLE
BrandSAMSUNG
Product / ServiceSAMSUNG CSR – SILENT WHISTLE
CategoryA04. Early-stage Technology
EntrantLEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation LEO BURNETT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Production MEDIAMONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS

Credits

Name Company Position
Jason Williams Leo Burnett Chief Creative Officer
Grant McAloon Leo Burnett Sydney Executive Creative Director
Nigel Clark Leo Burnett Sydney Creative Group Head Writer
Adrian Ely Leo Burnett Sydney Creative Group Head Art Director
Laurent Marcus Leo Burnett Sydney Digital Executive Producer
Dorothea Linneweber Leo Burnett Sydney Senior Integrated Producer
Keong Seet Leo Burnett Sydney Lead Developer
Adrian Jung Leo Burnett Sydney Head of Production
Rebecca Morton Leo Burnett Sydney Client Service Group Head
Emily Fisher Leo Burnett Sydney Senior Business Manager
Alexandra Roubine Leo Burnett Sydney Connections Planner

Why is this work relevant for Innovation?

This work is relevant for innovation because it is an innovative, new idea that harnesses existing tech and products to solve a real human problem. The idea of a smart watch app for the Samsung sport watches that sends a vibrating alert when a whistle is blown so deaf people can play team sports is a never before done innovation.

Background

Samsung is a company that creates tech to solve real human problems that help people to Do What They Can't - the mobile brand slogan. Our main objective was to promote the Samsung Galaxy Sport Watch with a product innovation that solves a problem in sport. Through our research we found that almost 40% of Australians are deaf or hard of hearing, which prevents them from playing team sport, because they can't hear the referee's whistle when it's blown. This led to many stories around teenagers being excluded from team sports due to hearing difficulties. As sport is a big part of Australian culture, we set out to solve this problem using Samsung tech - more specifically the Galaxy Sport smart watch.

Describe the idea

Thousands of hard of hearing and deaf Australin teens and children are excluded from regular team sport because they can’t hear the referee’s whistle when it’s blown. Meaning sports clubs often won’t allow them to play due to the disadvantage it can create. So our creative idea is The Silent Whistle - an app for the Samsung Galaxy Sport watch that picks up the frequency of a referee’s whistle and responds with an instant vibrating alert to the deaf player. Enabling hard of hearing kids and athletes to be included in regular team sports. The existing platform is the Tizen software and mic of the Galaxy Sport watch.

What were the key dates in the development process?

17/10/2018 Project Commencement 6/12/2018 - Release of Prototype #1 for local testing 11/1/2019 - Release of Prototype #2 for local testing 15/1/2019 - Release of Prototype #3 for local testing

Describe the innovation/technology

Leveraging the in-built microphone of the Galaxy Gear Sport smartwatch, we created an app that detects the specific frequency (range) of a referee's whistle (target 3900Hz). By applying a fourier transform on the audio picked up by the watch's microphone, we can detect whether the target frequency was among the sounds or not. If detected (i.e. two positive peaks of the right frequency during 16ms recording length) , the app triggers a vibration on the watch along with a visual cue, alerting the wearer of the whistle being blown.

Describe the expectations/outcome

The long term expectations is to have a commercially available app that any person in the world can download onto their Galaxy Sport watch. It is relevant to Samsung because they have a long history of sponsoring team sport in Australia so the expectation is it is used in a variety of other team sports, from AFL to football. Results: a) Whistle recognition rate - ~95% (*conditions- controlled outdoor environment, minimal environmental background noise, n=10 over 10m, 20m and 30m distance, based on prototype iteration #1 and FOX40 Classic whistle model) b) Detector False Hit Rate (approx false hits/minute) - 0.0067 (*conditions: outdoor and indoor environments with minimal background noises, based on duration of 150min runtime, based on prototype iteration #3) Client investment = $100K (AUD)