EssilorLuxottica Acquires Competitor Startup Pulse Audition

EssilorLuxottica just expanded its presence in the hearing space with the acquisition of an AI-driven tech startup in France and its talented team. The company, Pulse Audition, is just one of hundred of startups currently pursuing the concept of hearing glasses, in this case adding an edge with unique AI-based speech enhancement and noise reduction processing technologies embedded in the frames. The technology promises to accelerate the Nuance Hearing Glasses project.
Since it acquired Nuance Hearing, EssilorLuxottica has been consistently executing on its strategy to bring its Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses to the market. The Franco-Italian multinational holds a massive lead in the eyewear sector, and its control of the largest eyewear retail chains in the world, gives EssilorLuxottica a unique advantage to bring to market the unproven concept of hearing glasses. Early demonstrations served to show that the concept is functional, but still requires work on the audio processing front to meet the challenges of air conduction on a completely open design.

Challenges that new companies exploring artificial intelligence applied to audio processing seem closer to solve. EssilorLuxottica recognized that the acquisition of Pulse Audition, a French startup delivering AI-based noise reduction and voice enhancement algorithms, would accelerate its own strategy for the Nuance Hearing Glasses, while also removing a potential competitor with very similar goals.

As stated in the acquisition announcement, integrating Pulse Audition's proprietary technologies, expertise in AI software development, embedded AI, and audio signal processing, as well as its top talents, perfectly complements EssilorLuxottica's proprietary hardware and software "to improve the quality of its products and solutions in the long-term." This acquisition, the multinational says, "aligns seamlessly with the Group’s strategy in the hearing solutions space, marking a natural evolution in the journey started in 2023 with the acquisition of Nuance Hearing."
  Like many other companies, Pulse Audition developed proprietary audio processing algorithms for hearing glasses applications, and applied those technologies to its own "Pulse Frames" using embedded AI that explores head movements and selective filtering methods from the user to target and enhance speech from the voices in proximity. Likewise, the French startup was also exploring perfecting the open-ear architecture in glasses frames, using beamforming and air condition methods.

This concept competes directly with the Nuance Audio Hearing Glasses effort by EssilorLuxottica, which are not yet "good enough". The acquisition of Pulse Audition promises to accelerate this effort. According to a joint statement from Francesco Milleri, Chairman and CEO, and Paul du Saillant, Deputy CEO at EssilorLuxottica, the acquisition was seen as "a perfect fit".

"We continuously explore market opportunities in AI and big data, and this acquisition in France – one of our home countries – is a perfect fit with our long-term goals and investments in hearing solutions. It reinforces our commitment to advancing the next category of computing platforms, also in Europe. We are excited to welcome this talented team in our Group and look forward to further unlocking the enormous potential in the underserved hearing space."
www.pulse-audition.com
www.essilorluxottica.com