Abstract
Ubiquitous hearable devices often prioritize digital immersion by suppressing real-world sounds, distancing users from their physical surroundings. Conversely, noticing rich acoustic details in everyday sounds brings benefits such as supporting mindfulness and fostering musical appreciation. We explore how hearables can scaffold users to hear “more” of their everyday soundscapes. We present a wearable system that identifies hidden textures in everyday sounds, specifically overtones that shape timbre but are often perceptually hidden. Grounded in prior literature in auditory cueing, the system amplifies these overlooked textures in real time to produce a short-term attentional shift, enabling users to continue noticing these details after device use. We evaluated the system through two studies. A psychoacoustic study (n = 32) showed that the overtone textures detected by our system could be effectively cued. Across 10 sounds, participants showed a 13% improvement in detecting the overtone texture immediately after one-time cueing. These results were further validated by an in-lab user study (n = 12), where participants wore the system while interacting with everyday objects. In 69% of trials, participants reported that cued texture became more perceptually salient after using the device than before. Qualitative accounts further suggested that the device use could encourage participants to form new mental associations with familiar sounds.