We took some time to talk with EPOS about their impressive hardware line-up and visionary BrainAdapt™ technology. Want to learn more about the future of audio in gaming? Time to jump in!
Can you explain EPOS BrainAdapt™; to those unfamiliar with the concept?
In short – EPOS BrainAdapt™ is audio designed for your brain.
EPOS BrainAdapt™ is not one single technology feature or software, but rather our research-based approach to how we design the physical products and tune our algorithms and acoustics in our gaming products based on our understanding of how the brain processes sound. It’s a combination of different technology features that puts cognitive performance at the core of our products designs, and by testing how effectively and efficiently our brain is listening, we can perfect our engineering approach to help you optimize your performance.
How does the EPOS BrainAdapt™ change the way EPOS creates its headsets?
Actually, we have always designed and engineered our headsets with this approach due to our family ties to the Demant Group, a world-leading hearing healthcare, and technology group. Based on more than a decade of psychoacoustic research, conducted through our sister company Oticon, we have obtained the knowledge on what fatigues the brain, how to measure the information load on the brain, and have integrated pioneering technologies into our product portfolio which reduce the cognitive load of the brain.
The approach of how we are working with audio and design overall therefore isn’t something new, but we now actually have research studies running which allow us to provide specific and evidence-based proof that our audio equipment benefits your brain.
Compared to the competition, EPOS BrainAdapt™ certainly is a feature that’s unique for the EPOS brand, how does this benefit the overall experience for the gamers?
In short, audio solutions built on EPOS BrainAdapt™ technology offer better communication, faster reaction time and better in-game decision-making.
Take in-game graphics for example. We have all tried to be annoyed by bad graphics, pixelated images, or not being able to see the full picture, as it has a huge impact on how we can perform and fulfill a given task. It’s the same with audio. By not being able to “hear the full picture” you will automatically spend more energy trying to compensate for this – taking away energy from focusing on your game and leaving you tired and fatigued.
This is what EPOS BrainAdapt™ will prevent from happening. A specific example could be, what our latest research study* shows: the passive noise reduction measures of the EPOS H6PRO Closed, GTW 270 Hybrid and H3PRO Hybrid gaming headset lets you expend 35% less effort listening, give you 10% better memory recall, as well as 20% higher levels of word recognition. All in all; freeing up energy which instead can be used to optimize your in-game performance.
Is EPOS BrainAdapt™ specifically aimed at a more pro audience, or will casual gamers also feel the difference?
Our audio solutions built on EPOS BrainAdapt™ technologies will benefit whoever is playing for longer sessions – be that a pro player or casual gamer. Every day, every moment, every minute your brain has to deal with a ton of information and input for both your field of vision and sound. Both in real life, and
in your virtual space. The obstacle here is that our brains aren’t created to process artificial sounds – that be online communication, in-game audio tracks, etc. This cognitive load can lead to miscommunication, delayed reaction times and poor decision making – something we can all agree isn’t optimal for in-game environments, am I right?
Could you tell us a bit more about the pupillometry? How does it affect other genres than the shooters you mention on the website? For example platformers or horror-survival?
The research study wasn’t done with a specific focus on shooter games per say, so the benefits will be seen across multiple game types and titles. The focus of the study was however to investigate the benefits of passive damping technology used in EPOS Enterprise and Gaming solutions. The intent was to demonstrate how damping effects on speech intelligibility and the listening effort exerted by the study’s participants.
One of the research methodologies we used was pupillometry is a well-recognized way to measure pupil dilation. The more challenging the task, the larger the pupil. When we pay attention to sound, the muscles in the eyes involuntarily contract and release based on listening effort. Using pupillometry, the researchers can measure the effort people exert to understand what is being said in a real-world listening environment.
What advantage does this product really provide for a casual gamer?
It’s the findings from the study that proofs, that when using either EPOS’ GTW 270 Hybrid, H3PRO Hybrid or H6PRO Closed, you will achieve the benefits earlier mentioned: 20% better word recognition, 10% better memory recall and 35% less listening effort.
These benefits all help you free up energy in the brain that you instead can put to good use and achieve a better performance in-game, or enjoy that you’re not as tired after a long gaming session.
When testing your products – do you test the products both with e-sport gamers and casual gamers? Or do you use a different focus group?
We test our products on a lot of different metrics all throughout a product’s evolution. Stress tests, audio tests, environmental tests, packaging, and transportation tests, and I could go on.
We also have staff who have what we call “golden ears”. This covers colleagues with a specific talent for listening carefully and discerning differences in audio. This qualitative testing pathway ensures that we don’t rely simply on number readouts from machines to ensure our consumers get the final product we’ve designed for them.
In addition to all of this, we do of course also listen to our community and take in their valuable feedback and do our best to implement their desires into the products where possible. A specific example on this could be our GTW 270 Hybrid wireless earbuds where we recently shared a firmware update which enables the use of microphone when gaming with the low-latency dongle. A feature which was highly requested among our community.
What can we expect from the EPOS BrainAdapt™ in the future?
Working closely with Oticon and Demant, we will continue to invest into our evidence-based approach documenting the benefits of using EPOS solutions, thus broadening our insights into how to design audio solutions that reduce cognitive load. And these insights we will feed into our product development process to enhance your gaming performance and overall experience. That’s what we are passionate about!
One thing is certain – you can expect to hear a lot more about EPOS BrainAdaptTM in the future.
