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Headset Uses Bone-Conduction Technology
Wired reports that a new headset is on the way to solve all those background noise problems you have had with your cell phone in crowded areas. This new bluetooth headset uses "bone-conduction" technology that converts vibrations from you jaw into sound. The article claims it should be available as early as later this year for around $200.
What if you're chewing gum while talking?
Instead, it uses bone-conduction technology to convert the vibrations from your jaw into sound, making it perfect for ballgames, concerts and any other noisy public place you like to hold your private conversations.
Wonderful! We needed more ways for people to hold their private conversations at ballgames, concerts, theaters, etc..
I wonder if you have to keep the volume turned down to keep the vibration from shaking your teeth loose.
Starsucks
Wouldn't external noise also cause your bones to vibrate?
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In Japan for instance:
6 67.html
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.2
But you still get cancer.
I saw an exhibit with this kind of technology about 10 years ago in a science museum. In their variation, you put your forehead on a postage-stamp sized metal plate, and then you suddenly heard a voice. I remember thinking that it was pretty cool. Definitely a good idea to put it in a cellphone headset. I do wonder a bit about ensuring sufficient contact with the jaw. In the exhibit I saw, you bent over to put your head on the plate, and thanks to the heaviness of the human head, there was a decent amount of pressure against the plate. No idea exactly how much you need to make sure it gets transferred to the bone, but I could see that being a bit of an issue.
If you combined that with the sub-vocalization technology that can detect what you say as you speak silently, we might be able to rid society of noisy cellphone users. Now that's tech I can appreciate.
The image in TFA is incomprehensible to me. How big is that thing? Does it fit in your ear, do you hold it with two hands, does it attach to your head somehow?
This is one of those items for which I have no referent. A picture of someone using one would be most welcome.
What you jawing about?
Atleast two or three years ago in the UK a new type of lollypop started being sold, basicly you stick it in your mouth and it plays some cheesy music that only you can hear, this tech has been around for a while and is well developed enough to be made into a cheap throw away childrens toy.
:D Nothing like raising your arms in anger and shouting 'what the fuck did you do that for!' to yourself in the middle of a crowded train carriage to get attention.
Personally, $200 for this seems a bit expensive, and I can get closer to appearing more schizophrenic than when I'm wearing a bluetooth headset
Anyone else think of the original Bone Phone?
/ index3.html#bonefone
http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/magicalgadget
Looks like it could make a comeback as a combination mobile phone and mp3 player; then again, probably not.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
This stuff has existed for decades. I had one of these for my cellphone ten years ago. It works great, sounds like you are talking from a quiet room instead of a car whipping down the freeway, even when you ARE in a car whipping down the freeway.
It certainly isn't worth $200, though. We are talking about maybe $2 worth of materials here, probably even less.
-Matt
But our's was way cooler... Shozbot! Nanoo nanoo.
Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the
Bone microphone technology has been around for quite some time in the two-way radio communications biz, and it's much more discreet.
Bone microphones are sometimes used in the movie industry to communicate with actors/stunt people while on camera, when the person is too far away to reliably hear direction (if the person is dangling from a construction crane, for example).
..who already posted not get it?
It doesnt replace the speaker, so 'only you hear it' it replaces/enhances the microphone so the person you're talking to can hear you instead of the loud area you're in. And i didnt even rtfa
Years ago there was a portable radio called a BoneFone that was essentially a radio in a fabric tube that you wore around your neck. The speakers were supposed to resonate the sound through your bones to your inner ear providing the listener with breathtaking sound. I'm not sure how well this device worked since it was a little pricy for me as an early teen to consider buying. More recently an mp3 player has been selling that offers to do the same thing but in a waterproof housing that can be used by divers.
I have long wondered whether or not technologies like this might be a way to combat the inevitable hearing loss that we will be seeing from the increase in popularity of gadgets like the iconic ipod. Perhaps with a set of these one could rock out at what you thought was a loud volume without damaging the ear drum.
Does this thing use the same tech? Looks a lot smaller though, and doesn't have an ugly antenna...
I know of at least one headset using bone-conduction for 2 or three years. I don't know since when they sell it.
cb
I bought a corded earpiece for my cellphone many years ago which was made by Jabra (http://www.jabra.com) and I believe it worked on the same principle. It had no external microphone and when I talked on it people said it sounded as if I was talking from a landline even when blasting down the freeway under high road and engine noise. The people at the other end had no idea. I loved this earpiece, but sadly I can't seem to find many of these types anymore in a wireless configuration.
A fellow that I go swimming with is big into music and so has tried a variety of different devices for having music while doing laps - one of which is a bone-conduction headset. It works indifferently well for music - certain frequencies transfer better than others, but I could see that it might do better for phone communication. I'd think that a canalphone (shure or etymotic) would provide a more discreet and less bulky solution. Plus it won't pulverize your teeth or brain - though a canalphone might blow out your eardrum if you've got it up loud and get a burst of static or something.
James
1. An ex-coworker purchased a pair of swimming googles with a built-in mp3 player that used bone conduction instead of earplugs. This was at least one year ago.
2. Why not put bandpass filters that cut off outside of the dynamic range that can be generated by a human voice? This should cut a hell of a lot of the background noise.
A year later and I still think those googles were dorky as hell.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
I love this! From the article:
Perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek?, tongue-in-cheekbone? I don't know what I am going to find more irritating... the fact that cell phone users can now more easily and efficiently annoy everyone else in loud environments, or the fact that they paid $200 for that privelege. At least Wired got it right and got their little dig in in the process of informing. Sigh.
(Also interesting from the Wired article, the picture of this gadget has nothing to offer up scale, how frigging big is this thing? Looking at the picture, I can scale it a few different sizes and come up with some pretty interesting ideas about how it is worn and how comfortable it might or might no be.)
I just asked my wife if she'd be interested in talking on the bone phone....
...she didn't find it nearly as funny as I did.
Ever hear of the 'bone radio' thing back in the 80's? Was some sort of radio thing you could get at DAK that draped over your shoulders.
Never tried one myself.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They used to sell the things in the back of magazines and even comic books back in the 70s. Furthermore, a guy named Glen T. Poss that used to frequent the defunct netslaves and f#ckedcomany.com boards was trying to sell something similar in conjunction with an F#ckedcompany board moderator named Ross Rojek (Google him for lots of fun stories).
Google's getting into everything these days. Is that swim.google.com?
Do they sell goggles there?
Has so many possibilities for juvenile jokes.
Talk about buying the cow before doing your research!
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When I did my military service in Norway back in 1987, we used (among others) the SEM 52N variant tactical radio. This was fitted with a head piece with a bone conduction microphone. I'm unable to find a picture of the head piece, but the radio-set can be viewed at http://www.armyradio.com/publish/Articles/SEM_52A/ SEM-52A.htm
Heck, bone conduction earsets have been available for at least 15 years now for two-way radios. Motorola made them for tactical radios for police use back then.
Does the reception improve when one has an erection ??
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
Anyone remember the Bone Phone from the late '70s and early '80s. It draped around your shoulders like a towel. Everything old is new again. I can't wait for the new Sinclair ZX82 kit.
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Now all we need is an earpiece that cancels out the noise that starts when peoples jaws start vibrating. That would be something really useful for the concert or theater.
See here.
Question is: how do you touch the bone with the sound transmitter ? Either you surgically implant it in there or you press the skin very hard to get close enough to the bone. Friends of mine have bone-conduction helmets for use in mountain rescue helicopters. Reception is on top of the head, below the helmet, emission is on the jawbone sling of the helmet. In order for that thing to work the helmet needs to be worn very tight (very uncomfortable). And the frequency response makes it so weird you have to concentrate hard to understand, although I guess it could be solved with the right amount of signal processing.
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According to the article, this device is for transmitting your speech (not listening).I've always heard that the reason why we're shocked when we hear our own recorded voices, because we hear our own voice through bone-conduction... and the bone-conducted version sounds better.
If so, the person at the other end might not recognize you, because you would sound like a stranger... a stranger who has a richer, deeper voice than you.
If that's correct, the implications are interesting.
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This would take some getting used to. You hear your own voice through bone conduction, but others' voices conducted through the air. This is the origin of that phenomenon where your voice sounds different when it's played back from a recording. The bone mic would let others hear my voice like I hear it (conducted through my jaw), not like they're used to (through the air).
I would be afraid if Japan didn't have this already.
Back in the 1800's, the deaf actually used bone-conducting devices as hearing aids. They'd have a harp like instrument and it would have a mouth piece they'd bite into. The vibrations of sounds would be caught by the harp and then received by the listener through their teeth due to the bone conduction.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
The way I heard it: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is skiing.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Listen here, bonehead. Are you listening? I can see you've got 2 ears. Are you listening?
Yea this should be beyond funny in a few years when we hear about all the weird degenerative conditions resulting from vibrating your jaw bone constantly.
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Now I can finally subvocalize to Jane!
There's already something similar on the market (no bluetooth though).
Now if only they would ship to Europe...
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And I've used a wired one on a cell phone before.
The only thing about this that might be new is that it uses Bluetooth.
How good are bone conduction mics compared to regular ones? I found one that is listed as having 70dB S/N ratio. I'm not sure what the average noise cancelation for normal headsets, but the one I have from that company has a X dB S/N. That's about an order of magnitude better than regular headsets based on my experience. They have some cool demos (check the Blackhawk demo) on their site (annoying popup and quicktime warning). Given that the standard models are only $150, I expect the bone conduction one to be much better to be worth it.
Back in the early 90's, I remember using a comms device with a strange kind of mic. It was like an elastic band that went around your neck, and had a couple of guitar-like pickup looking things in front on either side and just below the adam's apple. Not too tight, just enough to hold itself in place. I got used to it pretty fast and forgot I was wearing it, and it worked pretty well - never had any clarity problems.
I had to use it because I was wearing an air-fed hood (basically a big clear plastic bag on my head with an air line) working inside an empty radioactive liquid tank.
I'm having trouble getting any hits on google for something like this.
Whenever I wear my bluetooth earpiece, I get two common complaints:
- Echo (microphone picking up what the speaker is emitting)
- Wind noise ( windows down in car, riding bicycle, etc. )
This seems to be common among all but some highly priced bluetooth earpieces.
If TFA's subject actually works, I'll be first in line to get one!
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Colonel, this is Snake. I'm at the sneakpoint.
:D
Yes, this looks a lot like the same idea as the Codec from Metal Gear Solid.
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How is that relevant? I think it's very usefull.. and would love it for my MP3 player instead of wering a big headset to protect my ears!
If it'd be a bit more compact, I'd certainly go out and buy one and enjoy my music without worrying to lose my hearing before I'm 30.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
...bone, head, crowded areas, vibrations, jaw, $200...it reminds me of something...
This was published in Popular Science last year.
I am mostly deaf due to lack of ear canals, so I have to wear an analog bone conduction hearing aid (Oticon 380p). I wonder if this technology is the same as used in cellphone as noted in the story. It's awful and confusing when I have background sound, noises, etc. and trying to hear. Hence, why I request a quiet area/place to hear. The hearing aid cannot distinguish which sound/voices I want to hear. It's basically like a microphone and amplified all audio it can detect up.
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I would say a good 50% of the people posting seem to think the $200 device transmits sound via the bone.
No, it's picking up sound from your skull when you speak - thus a bone MICROPHONE. As far as listening to calls, that still uses a speaker.
That's why sound is so clear - for the person listening to YOU talk, not the other way round.
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Isn't this like the throat mikes used by panzer crews in the second world war?
I don't see why 50 year old tech should cost more than a few dollars. (Yes, sure they might be better than a WW2 tank mike, but USD 200 is preposterous).
GPG 0x1B479C78
yes, the technology you used a decade ago must function exactly as the technology of today. I tried one of them computers back in '96, slow as molasses! worthless, it was!
Any of the old-timers here remember the Bone Fone from the 1980s?
A walkman the way it shoulda been - with good quality sound, under a pound! My father had one, and I loved it when I was a wee lad. (Alas, I could never remember to turn it off when done, so I wasn't allowed to use it much)
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Now I can subvocalize and communicate with Jane without my wife hearing.
("Speaker for the Dead" reference)
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Here's an idea, learn some fucking manners and don't use your phone in a crowd or while driving. And if you do use a phone while driving, consider drunk driving instead, it's safer.
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My jaw clicks whenever I move it a fair amount. I doubt anyone I was talking to would like to hear "Hey Bob! *CRACK!* How are *CRACK!* you?"...
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In a barn somewhere deep in Connecticut sometime in the mid-90's (think Mac Lc II), Hatter sits in some relative stranger's home recording studio recieving alternative therapy for one of his more exotic afflictions (read: the relatively unknown world of dyslexia at that time). Some sort of trendy auditory "treatment" based on "solid scientific fact" perhaps read through a crystal ball. This therapy was based on sonic frequency and bone conduction. I don't remember much, but I do remember the "therapist" saying, amongst other things, that long term exposure to bone conducted sound was detrimental to not only hearing, but the nervous system in general. Hatter says: I'm inclined to believe her because my experience using her devices was both uncomfortable and unsettling and also left me with sharp headaches. I've heard a lot of people say that Bluetooth gives them a headache. I can only wonder what kind of monster migraines this will cause. Ruby says: I can't imagine that anything that causes direct vibrations to the skull will feel very different from snuggling up to a belt sander after a while.
Take what we say with salt, for it is likely both hearsay and conjecture. Do your own research-come to your own opinion.
While this articles replies often tivialize the bone/sound phenomon, The way bone affects sound is interesting, and is still used today by skilled ear/nose/throat surgeons to detect tumors.
Where initial diagnosis of acoustic neuroma(tumours on nerves) need to often be made before referral to MRI test, the skilled doctor can actually detect changes in tuning fork pitch, when placed against the skull, when a tumor is present.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
first it was our brains, now jaw, god knows what is next.
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Radio Shack has sold a wired version of this in the past.
... When all your friends sound like Darth Vader over a mobile call.
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stupid trollbitch
Is that what's used to make... booty calls?