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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
In Japan for instance:
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http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.2
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.
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?
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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
No.
The skull acts the same as a loudspeaker's enclosure (or a guitar body) - greatly amplifying low and medium frequency waves (try saying aaaa or mmmmmm with your hand on top of your head).
So if you pick up sound directly from the bone, you'll be recording the sound directly from its source, and background noises would be too weak compared to your own voice (except when a plane flies really low or you are at a really loud rock concert).
That's like putting a microphone inside a loudspeaker. Of course it will record noises, but only really loud ones will be of any significance.
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
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.
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
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.
Google's getting into everything these days. Is that swim.google.com?
Do they sell goggles there?
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.
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.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I would be afraid if Japan didn't have this already.
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.
Now I can finally subvocalize to Jane!
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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
Is that what's used to make... booty calls?