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Magnetic Induction Technology Headset Reviewed
Semi-Anonymous Coward writes "The first review of a wireless headset using Magnetic Induction technolgy has been posted at mobile technology website MobileBurn. The reviewer mentions that the technology provides almost 'crystal clear' phone conversations, which is better than most Bluetooth headsets he has used. The magnetic induction technology creates a 'bubble' around the user which increases the security of their communications. Is this the replacement for Bluetooth in Audio applications? It certainly looks like it..."
The magnetic induction technology creates a 'bubble' around the user which increases the security of their communications
Olde news, Maxwell Smart had this back in the 60's.
Trolling is a art,
Especially since the Earth's magnetic field is weakening and preparing to flip from N-S to S-N.
Save your money.
...or is anyone else a little apprehensive about pairing the phrases "magnetic induction" and "headset"?
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Unlikely
Magnetic induction has been used for years for two things - brain scans (which don't (I hope) cause cancer), and hearing aid loops.
Exercise your right not to vote. thinkoutside.org
... which I can see being great for the phone. Does it interfere with the WiFi network as well ? If A interferes with B, shouldn't you expect (B) to interfere with A...
"Excuse me Mr. Jones, could you move to the other side of the room please, you're corrupting the network"...
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
while wearing your tinfoil hat?
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
The fact that no current or announced cell phones have this "magnetic induction technology", probably means that we're a few years away from mass adoption. Few people want to attach a wired adapter to their phone in order to use a wireless headset. Bluetooth still rules the land of wireless headsets! Long live Bluetooth!
Now when i stand up from my computer I wont step on the chord, yank my neck, and break my headphones everytime.
Well, look at it this way. If prolonged heavy usage is dangerous, the only people that are going to be realistically affected are telemarketers and tech support drones. This may well be a blessing in disguise.
I thought the company name was "MobileBum". Damn sans-serif fonts.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
No phone uses magnets and induction?
I can think of a device in a phone that does.
The idea is that a coil of wire (known as an "inductor") creates a magnetic field due to an electric current that varies in strength (this is known as an "electromagnet"), which then attracts and repels it, along with a cone designed to move sound, from a permanent magnet. In other words, the movement of the electromagnet moves the cone, which moves the air to create sound. Clever isn't it? Modern, perhaps? The whole mechanism is currently known as a "speaker."
I'm sure that this is neat and modern, but the naming scheme leaves something to be desired. What does "magnetic induction" mean in this case?
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I always wondered why this effect wasnt exploited more often for short range comm. So easy in the lab to take your poorly designed digital circuit and just put an oscilliscope near and and walla, theres the data on your circuit, no modulation or other assorted rubish.
---------
No matter how thin you slice it, its still baloney.
Who authorized you to leave your cubical?!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The manufacturer's web site seems to be claiming that this gives some privacy due to the use of near field magnetic induction. However, magnetic field antennas (i.e. AM broadcast band ferrite loop stick antennas) are used commonly to receive signals. It seems that all one need do is make a loop antenna sensitive to the 13.5 MHz frequency used and you could listen in with a shortwave receiver. Unless, of course, they encrypted the signal.
Looks like a nice development, but the adapter looks kinda hinder-some. Too bad they can't make it a bluetooth direct headset.
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
Do us a favour, stop posting "reviews" hosted from the products own websites.
Lets face it, even if someone to come up with a cure of cancer, there will be some one to sue him for whatever reason.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Simple inductive loop systems were deployed many years ago for places like art galleries and museums. It works, but needs a bit of power. If the transmiter is static, no problem. Maybe the power thing is solved now, but Bluetooth is for a lot more than headsets.
ACMD eht detaloiv evah uoy
Contrary to popular belief, there is no person named "Magneto" and it would pretty much be impossible to magnetically rip the iron out of you rblood.
Aside from nonsense such as this I don't know why you'd be afraid of a magnatic field. Researchers with supercolliders are routinely within very short distances of fields orders of magnitude greater than anything this would produce.
The big question is security. Magnetic induction technology is in widespread use already - post-office counters, public address systems and ticket booths are often fitted with inductive loops for the benefit of hearing-aid users, who can pick up the sound from them directly by switching their aids to a special setting.
:-)
The article doesn't say, but one hopes that the manufacturers have built some reasonably sophisticated security into their system - if not, then eavesdropping devices for them are already in widespread use.
Is it safe to use with my tinfoil/aluminum foil hat?
Is it alien approved?
Oh my that's two questions... SEE! I'm being controlled!
Apparently the range from the base is only 4-6 feet. So we're not talking portable phone quality or anything (although my POS phone only really does about 10 feet from the base without cutting out anyway).
deaf people have been known to wear their hearing aides every waking moment.
i would think if magnetic induction were inherently hazardous to your health, deaf people would have been dropping like flies from brain cancer by now.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I'm not sure I really want a magnetic field around my head. I recall an episode of "Scientific American Frontiers" (no energy to find link, Alan Alda, PBS, etc) with a physiologist investigating the brains ability to adapt and allocate bored portions of the brain for other tasks. They blinfolded a volunteer and showed how her optical cortex began processing tactile rather than visual inputs.
...Likes! brain!"
THEN, they used a magnetic field (applied via wand to the back of her head) to essentially erase/shut off/disable this new function. They were quite casual about it, and it was pretty obvious that the erasure was well established.
So, count me out!
[Kent Brockman] "...ahem....Little girl
It might get interesting if this evolved into a complete wireless virtual reality helmet. That said, though, I don't want strong electromagnetic fields passing through my brain.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
So, you have any evidence at all that any of these things are true? You have links to peer-reviewed scientific publications? Are you, yourself, an M.D. or a Ph.D. specializing in electromagnetics? Have *you* studied the effects, harmful or otherwise, of the electromagnetic effects of the levels of RF typical of cellphones at normal usage distances? Do you understand the difference between ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation? The difference between RF and AF? Do you even know what sort of frequency range this device operates in?
Perhaps, sir, if you REALLY want to warn the rest of us, you could provide some links and some science instead of baseless fearmongering.
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
Here I was thinking the thing induced a perception of sound via magnetic fields in the user's head. Without the intermediate vibrating air molecules that regular loudspeakers use.
Didn't see anything about that.
"Communication Bubble"? Holy cats--they're selling you on the wonders of limited transmitter range, people!
The signal from transmitter to earpiece is still regular old EM radiation. This thing just utilizes the B field rather than the E field. Not often used, but certainly nothing new, either.
The long pointy stick with the bulbous end fitting neatly into the docking station's groove has some appeal, though. Just good functional design, I guess.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Most phones are already fitted with an induction coil in the handset - these are there to work with hearing aids (I wear one myself). In older phones, and certain new-ish payphones these induction coils work extremely well - good clear sound, and they couple with the hearing aid well. But the vast majority of modern phones - including those labelled "hearing aid compatible" have induction coils that barely work at all. It's impossible to find a phone that works with a PABX system that has an adequate induction coil that works with a hearing aid. I looked far and wide and tried a few devices, but in the end I had to give up - there is literally no such thing as a phone or device that works with a PABX system that approaches the effectiveness of my home phone, in terms of being able to hear it. There is a third-party handset sold for this purpose (IIRC, the brand is "Walker"), but its induction coil is very weak too -- all they did was to to put a very cheap and nasty amplifier in the handset - and we all know exactly how much THAT benefits the sound quality. It would make my life a lot easier to be able to find a phone for the office that I can use. I wonder if this new gizmo could be adapted somehow...
Really, this tech seems like a great leap backwards. I can't think of any advantage except price. With bluetooth you have decent range (leave the phone on a table and walk around 10-15m away), encryption and pairing (so your headset talks to your phone, and not everyone in range) and it's already available in phone, PDAs, computers (use your headset for VoIP...).
Really, what's wrong with bluetooth?
Well, maybe /. will post an article about how to nuild your own at-home high speed particle accelerator/collider. Either that, or a "make your own fission reactor" article. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go have a smoke.
Magnetic induction.... WOW, you mean like Radio, Faraday's law & all that? This is a breakthrough, forget that Marconi guy, this magnetic induction could be the next big thing!
Can you hear me now?
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
please... who authorized such stupid article ? magnetic induction is at lease 100 years old... I am not in the mood to go look for maxwell's age and its precursors, but please... every antena uses magnetic induction...
....
oh, but wait.. we could lauch a better device that uses ELETRO magnetic induction !
please... save me oh lord (of the rings)
I'm sure there'll be no limit to the potential sources of brain cancer in 25 years. Personally, I blame the liberals.
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
I have a handspring treo (love it). The headphone jack is a 3 conductor instead of the standard 2 conductor plug. It's almost impossible to find 3 conductor adaptors for the damn thing. I really want something like the auracomm headset, but if it doesn't work with a 3C plug then I'm screwed. Anyone know of a company that makes something like this?
Maybe magnetic induction impairs your hearing? If our sample group consists solely of already-near-deaf people we won't know until no one hears anything anymore. I smell a RIAA plot.
Free as in mason.
Yes. I need more crap. I need a selection of 50,000 different headsets because damnit, a telephone is just *too* heavy to pick up with my hand. I need to buy some overpriced plastic crap because I'm just that lazy. Really. Sell me some more shit, /. I'm also looking for a device that'll hold my dick while I pee, because I really can't be bothered with that much effort.
Talk about technology that has been around since the 50's making a comeback. But if you think about it, in the 50's one would have to have four foot wide coils and cumbersome gear to make it work. How many wanna bet, wireless routers are going to be next? I wanna see your war-drive that...
magnetic induction is not the best thing to have around such things as creditcards, computer chips, and compasses ..
So ... how safe is it for the above devices??
tkjtkj
"There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
I have a regular one-ear headset right now and it is not convenient for loud environments. All I want is a headset with two speakers and a mike that plugs into a regular phone's 2.5mm jack.
Any idea where I could find this?
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Whoa there hoss, it was a joke. Humor, you know? I've done my time in tech support, and I feel for the people who still have to do it, and pray I never will have to do it again.
I'm nowhere near the top, my background is about as far from rich and privileged as you can get while still growing up in the United States, and I am currently trying to figure out how to pay for college myself, so I can get out of being as poor as I currently am. Please, get over yourself.
View their product line at hatis.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
This just looks like ultra wide band communication to me -- just with a different buzz word attached. They probably just pulse an electromagnet on and off to produce a digital signal that is picked up by the reciever. When you vary the intensity of a magnetic field you produce electro magnetic radiation. Since they are pulses and not a signal modulated at sum carrier frequency the frequency spectrum that is emmited is across a large spectrum. Hence the name ultra wide band communication. Because of the way UWB signal propigate (different frequencies propigate at different speeds and have different absorption rates) the signals don't propigate as far as regular RF signals (well they propigate the information is just lost.)
For those of you who haven't bothered to check (like me up until a few minutes ago), parent poster is a troll. "Amsterdam Vallon" is a character in "Gangs of New York", not an associate professor of computer science at Slaughter College. I'm fairly sure about this, as I can't seem to find any mention of Slaughter College anywhere on the 'net. Of course, if "Amsterdam Vallon" is representative of their faculty, they probably are afraid to connect to the Internet or even plug their computers into the wall.
Is there such a thing as an Amish computer scientist?
I'd like to see AV work on his content, but he seems to be working up some pretty good troll-fu. Congrats. We need better trolls, 'round hereabouts.
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
Personally, I always thought the Aureal cards were damn good, myself.
"Well, look at it this way. If prolonged heavy usage is dangerous, the only people that are going to be realistically affected are telemarketers and tech support drones"
All outside appearances suggest they've been using it for years.
If most of the 1st world dies of brain cancer, there won't be any lawyers left around to sue.
This is a lot more interesting than you might think. H (near) field communication is really unexplored in the commercial world. It is rather limited in range (meter or two) and for the most part it is rather ignored in EMC testing (Electro-Magnetic Compatability [read FCC testing]). If you want to see a cool example of H field interference dig up two 10 year old 20" monitors and put them side by side and watch the wicked interferance. Even if you wrap the monitors in a grounded wire mesh you will still see interferance because the problem is a magnetic H field not an E field (RF) signal. To kill the interferance you need to use a Mu Metal shield (or one heck of a lot of iron). Of course, one application's interferance is another signal. If you are really carefull about building your H field and not generate much E field it would be rather secure from evesdropping outside of 4 or 5 meters.
when the world ends before the conclusion of xmas shopping season.
It would suck to be tossed into the void without having made or spent a grip of cash in the throws of exuberant merchandising.
I am glad you like to wish death on others. Shows a nice mature personallity.
What does it show when someone like you jumps on a joke as an opportunity to get on his moral high-horse?
I bet you're a whole lot of fun at parties.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
- There are some problems with magnetic fields, mostly in areas with low hanging power cables,lthough it doesn't cut out the quality is less than perfect. Other sources of magnetic fields cause similar problems.
- There are some Nokia compatability problems, these can be solved by using an adapter with is usually included, although I didn't get it with the sample I was send. I've tried it with a number of other phones including Toshiba, NEC and Siemens, and have had no other problems. BTW this is NOT a problem with the headset, but with Nokia socket. (I solved this with a $2 adapter with the regular jack socket replace with the small jack socket soldered on and a heat shrink cover.)
- The documentation wasn't clear on how to turn it off, so I decided to leave it at home for my trip to the UK. There is a way, the photocopied documentation didn't contain this information.
Soon this will also be rolled out in Europe, probably not by me, sadly.'I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds'
Specifically, because the article claims the device runs off standard AA batteries and compares averagely with other headsets: lifetime 2-3 hours. Therefore its power consumption is similar and, given the efficiency of most electronic gadgets is much of a muchness, at least to an order of magnitude, the EM power it's putting out is roughly similar, and hence the field strength is roughly similar[0]. There is certainly nothing in the article that suggests it's anything out of the ordinary in EM power output density.
[0] Strictly, if you want to compare E-fields with B-fields chuck in a factor of \epsilon\sub{0}/\mu\sub{0}. But that just helps the "harmless" side of the argument; thefactor represents that magnetism is a second-order (dipole) effect in the first place, and its interactions are correspondingly weaker (than electrical interactions).
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
The tech isn't new at all, but I *am* surprised at how seldom I see it. The most common magnetic-induction arrangement is a _large_ loop inductor (e.g. a loop of wire running around the entire perimeter of a room), and a magnetically inducted device, such as a headset, used inside the loop/room. The main advantage of this type of technology is that it operates at "ground zero" of the RF spectrum (from 0 to a few KHz), and is carrierless. With a sufficiently sensitive receiving device (crystal headset) or strong transmitter, the device may not even require its own power source. The disadvantage of course is the short range--the device won't work far outside the loop; with this product (I doubt they instruct the user to run a wire all around the office) the range is only a couple meters--perfect for sitting at a desk without getting tangled, but no good for walking around the house.
The "magnetic bubble ensures privacy" argument is a strange one; the only impediment to eavesdroppers is that couple-meters limited range on the (carrierless) signal. It protects privacy in the same way whispering would, but I would not exactly call it a selling point for those who need a secure line.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.