Aeri
Public speaking anxiety affects around 80% of people, and most fixes work by blocking sound out entirely. Aeri does the opposite: an open-ear cuff styled as jewellery that plays calming sound through a small open speaker, sensing when a room falls quiet and fading it in automatically, with a companion app to choose what grounds you.
A quiet room makes public speaking anxiety worse, not better, because silence is what sets it off, not what settles it. Most existing solutions (earplugs, noise-cancelling buds) work by blocking sound out entirely, which only deepens the isolation.
It isn't silence that calms; it's a low, constant layer of sound filling the gaps, enough to feel grounded without shutting the wearer off from the room. And it had to look like jewellery, because nobody wants to visibly wear something that reads as medical.
Aeri is an open-ear cuff, styled as jewellery, that plays calming white, pink, or brown noise through a small open speaker rather than sealed buds. A microphone senses when a room falls quiet and fades the sound in automatically; a companion app lets the wearer choose their sound and sensitivity. One end of the loop houses the speaker, the other hides the battery as a counterweight, so the tech disappears into a piece the jewellery needed anyway.
University students facing presentations and vivas, creatives pitching ideas, and professionals in high-pressure roles who speak under pressure regularly and want to stay composed without anything that reads as medical.
- Started with a bone-conduction ear cuff, then moved to an open-ear speaker once staying connected to the room became the real goal.
- Added a companion app, turning Aeri into a product plus a service, since different sounds calm different people.
- Packaging went through two directions: a matchbox-style sliding drawer, and a hinged jewellery box with a USB-C charging port built into the case.
- Naming and identity: "Aeri" reads backwards as "ear," and the circular wordmark abstracts both an ear shape and outward sound waves.
Aeri positions itself as a lifestyle product first and a wellness device second: a subtle confidence accessory, not assistive tech. Sound choice lives in the app rather than being fixed in the hardware, since the calming effect of white noise isn't universally proven, and the product commits only to detecting a quiet room, not reading emotional state.
