Have you ever visited a popular and well-reviewed restaurant only to find –once you arrive there- that it’s too noisy for you to hear your own thoughts? Discovering that you’re in a noisy restaurant can be a total mood killer depending on the occasion; background noise may be no big deal when you’re out with a group of friends, but it might seriously kill the mood on a romantic date or disrupt a work meeting. A new app called iHEARu might just change all that.
Developed by an organization called Lend an Ear, the app allows users to share the volume of the restaurants they visit, much like other apps invite users to leave reviews of the food and service. Not only are users allowed to share their own opinions regarding noise, the app also uses the phone’s mic to measure the decibel of the room’s chatter.
CEO of Lend an Ear Kelly Tremblay told Restaurant Hospitality, “Not all noise is bad. Noise is not just a thumbs-down or thumbs-up feature. Any establishment will be loud at some point. What’s special about the app is it gives a breakdown about time spent and [noise levels] down to half-hour increments.” With enough data, the app could predict the best times to go to a restaurant for a quieter experience.
The app has already launched in San Francisco while an April launch is expected for New York. The app may expand to Portland, Ore., Seattle, Washington, D.C., and possibly Atlanta and Chicago later this year.
[Via:Robbreport]
