Sound ID Raises $8 Million in First-Round Funding to Develop Technology Designed to Enhance the Listening Experience

Sound ID, a start-up company and developer of advanced technology specifically designed to enhance users' listening experiences, announced that is has received approximately $8 million in first-round funding from Texas Instruments, Tyco Ventures and various angel investors.

The Company's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Rodney Perkins, otologist and founder of ReSound Corporation, Laserscope and Collagen Corporation, started Sound ID with the goal of enhancing the appreciation of sound through innovative technology that is based on a deep understanding of human hearing and psychoacoustics.

"We've clearly identified a need for enhanced hearing solutions that allow consumers to optimize their hearing in a variety of situations," said Dr. Rodney Perkins, Sound ID chairman and CEO. "Our goal is to develop and bring advanced hearing technology to the masses, and we've been very fortunate to have assembled a team of highly-skilled professionals in hearing and technology product development to accomplish this task."

The Sound ID solution addresses two critical variables in listening that are often overlooked: the naturally changing hearing of individual listeners, and listening in noisy environments. Both greatly influence the quality of sound perception.

The Problem

Every individual hears sound differently. Hearing changes occur in every listener over time, altering the quality of music perception and the intelligibility of speech. Significant changes that alter sound perception affect over 16% of the population of the United States. These trends are correlated with age: approximately 40% of the leading edge of the Baby Boomer population, who are now in their fifties, have significant changes to their hearing.

A national health survey also found that children's hearing is changing at an accelerated rate, with a 12% increase in reported hearing difficulties in children between 1971 and 1991. These market trends will expand both the need for and the opportunity to deliver Sound ID products and services to the market.

In addition, individuals with relatively normal hearing have difficulty hearing in noisy background situations. These adverse listening environments create temporary perceptual effects in all listeners that are identical to the permanent changes within the cochlea (inner ear) caused by hearing impairment.

The technology and services of Sound ID differ from typical noise compensation or sound enhancement systems in that the technology is derived from a complete understanding of the human auditory system, particularly the knowledge of the complex physiology of the cochlea and the effects of acoustic processing on the perception of sound. Sound ID leverages its unique knowledge of signal processing and human hearing to increase the intelligibility of speech signals, and to preserve the quality of music listening.

Seasoned Management Team

Sound ID was founded by Dr. Rodney Perkins, renowned otologist at the California Ear Institute at Stanford and a professor of surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the founder and former chairman of three public companies: ReSound Corporation, Laserscope and Collagen Corporation. Dr. Perkins also founded Novacept, Pulmonx and Cohesion and is currently chairman of both Novacept and Pulmonx.

Since founding the company, Dr. Perkins has assembled a team of professionals with experience in hearing and high technology product development.

His first appointment was Dr. Scott Rader, former director of advanced technology for United States Surgical Corporation (USSC) and the USSC Division of Tyco Healthcare. Dr. Rader is executive vice president of marketing and business development. Dr. Chaslav Pavlovic was recruited by Dr. Perkins to be Sound ID's executive vice president of R&D. He has brought leading hearing technology products to market leveraging his strong scientific background in hearing science and speech technology. Dr. Pavlovic was formerly the senior vice president of research and development at GN ReSound (formerly ReSound Corporation).

Dr. Brent Edwards, the Company's vice president of research, brings to Sound ID his experience in hearing science, signal processing development, and research and clinical audiology. Dr. Edwards previously was the director of research at GN ReSound, and he has published extensively on signal processing and hearing in journal and magazines.

Benny Johansen, vice president of software development at Sound ID, has extensive expertise in developing information systems for the hearing industry. Mr. Johansen developed the architecture for the worldwide de facto NOAH standard for communication among audiologic equipment and hearing devices, and was the director of software development for GN ReSound. In addition to the hearing science team, Peggy Wiley, former CFO of ValiCert and Focalink, has joined Sound ID as CFO.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments is a global semiconductor company and the world's leading designer and supplier of digital signal processing (DSP) and analog technologies, the engines driving the digitization of electronics. TI holds a market-leading position in DSP and analog solutions and has extensive expertise in a myriad of other technologies, such as mixed-signal, ASIC and logic. Texas Instruments' corporate strategic investment in Sound ID supports efforts by Sound ID to develop innovative new technologies and market-expanding systems that enable to incorporate their proprietary Digital Sound Personalization(TM) into audio systems.

About Tyco Ventures

Tyco Ventures invests resources in early-stage technology companies to help them develop and market new products and services.

As the venture capital arm of Tyco International, a $28.9 billion global company that manufactures, distributes and services products and systems including electronics, undersea fiber optic telecommunications systems and disposable medical instruments, Tyco Ventures leverages significant business resources for investments in communications and healthcare. Within these broad arenas, they focus on businesses and technologies of potential strategic interest to Tyco International.

About Sound ID

Located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, Sound ID employs a seasoned team of hearing scientists, physicians, engineers and business executives. This team of digital signal processing and software engineers have come together to enhance the way people experience listening. Based on a deep understanding of human hearing and psychoacoustics, Sound ID is developing new solutions for improving listening across a variety of entertainment and telecommunications systems.