 |
Audio Bone-Conduction Headphones
Morito Co. will offer Audio Bone, a set of headphones that works by bone conduction, to the mass consumer market in Japan this week. Rather than going through the eardrum, Audio Bone converts sounds into mechanical vibrations going through your skull straight to your auditory nerve.
(Attractive Audio-Bone Headphone)
I've looked all over; it appears that the headphones have several configurations. Both are clearly labeled with the manufacturer brand name.
(Audio Bone details - cell phone version soon)
The Audio Bone headphone has several advantages over regular headphones:
- The headphone does not cover the ear; it should be possible to listen to others more easily while wearing headphones.
- Audi Bone does not damage hearing by playing it too loudly.
Science fiction readers may recognize the phone usage; I have to give at least partial credit to Robert Heinlein for nailing this one in 1951. In The Puppet Masters, secret agents have wireless phones surgically implanted in their skulls. And they work by, you guessed it, bone-conduction.
The sort of phone my Section uses is not standard; the audio relay is buried surgically under the skin back of my left ear - bone conduction.
(Read more about the audio relay)
Update 11-May-2012: It turns out that the first person to file a patent on a device that transmitted sound via bone conduction was none other than Hugo Gernsback; he filed a patent for an "acoustic device" in 1923 (he later referred to it as an "osophone"). His patent was granted by the US Patent Office in 1924.
This invention relates to acoustical instruments and the important objects of the invention are to provide simple and practical means by which hearing may be effected by sound vibrations transmitted directly to the osseous tissue of the body. A particular purpose is to provide such means in the form of a small, compact and handy instrument which can be easily carried about and used without attracting undue attention.
(See Gernsback's patent drawings acoustic apparatus (osophone))
End update.
Find out a bit more here.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/21/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion (Back On) ( 16 )
Related News Stories - (" Lifestyle ")
Podtime Sleeping Pod Like Niven's Napcap
'The lid lifted and she crawled inside... The inside received her as a womb.'
A Cool DIY Magnetically Levitated Bed
'Everything was suspended magnetically at the proper height...
'
Swede's Home Nuclear Reactor On Back Burner
'His interest in nuclear physics was awakened as a teenager.'
Philips Luminous Textile Panel Soft Cells
Luminous textiles that work with sound waves.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
Swiss HCPVT Giant Photovoltaic 'Flower'
'...leaning against one of the slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector.'
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer
Organleggers may experience an employment downturn.
Smartphone Sensor System Tracks Gunfire
'Sound trackers on the roof could zero in on weapons action...'
Bacteria Now Make Biofuel Like Oil
'They have ... germs that eat pretty near anything, and produce oil as a waste product.'
