Spec. 001 — Muriel
Someone should tell you it's too loud. Muriel volunteered.
A hearing-dose tracker for people who like loud rooms and would prefer to keep hearing them.
Hearing damage is permanent, cumulative, and completely painless while it’s happening, which is a terrible combination. Muriel keeps count of the noise you take in — at gigs, on the train, under headphones — and tells you plainly when you’ve had your fill. She is not subtle about it.Named after a grandmother who was never once tactful and never once wrong. That is rather the point.
Features
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She counts the whole day, not the moment
A sound meter tells you how loud it is right now. Muriel tracks dose: the NIOSH model used in workplace hearing conservation, where 100% is a full day's safe exposure. The scale is unforgiving on purpose. Every 3 dB doubles the rate of damage and halves your safe time — two hours at 97 dB does what one hour at 100 dB does. Almost nobody knows this, which is most of the problem.
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She speaks up while you can still do something
A warning when the room crosses the line, and a nudge as you close in on the day's limit — early enough to move away from the stack, step outside between sets, or just put the plugs in.
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Headphones count too
Muriel reads environmental sound and headphone audio levels from Apple Health, so the commute and Saturday night land in the same ledger. Most of the damage is done in small, boring increments on the way to work.
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The long view, without the guilt trip
Weeks and months of exposure as a shape you can read at a glance. No streaks, no scolding, no perfect record to break. Loud nights are part of a life worth having. She only wants you to know the bill.
What Muriel isn't
She isn't a calibrated sound level meter. Your phone's microphone is a phone microphone. Muriel is good enough to tell "this is fine" from "this is doing damage," which is the decision that actually matters — but she is not a legal instrument and she will not win you a workplace dispute.
She isn't a doctor either. She can't diagnose anything and she can't tell you what's already gone. If your ears ring after a show, or ring all the time, see an audiologist. She will keep saying this until you do.
Screens
- 01 / 03 Placeholder 19.5:9
Muriel screenshot pending
- 02 / 03 Placeholder 19.5:9
Muriel screenshot pending
- 03 / 03 Placeholder 19.5:9
Muriel screenshot pending