Slashdot Mirror
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?
In Japan for instance:
6 67.html
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?
/ 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
Only the microphone part utilises vibrations, the sounds are still outputted with standard soundwaves-into-your-eardrum technologies...
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 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?
Exactly. The ear itself already uses bone induction "technology".
Wake me when they develop a bone induction foot-set for my shoe phone.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.