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Ultra-Low Power Radio Transceiver Enables Truly Wireless Earbuds
First time accepted submitter irl_4795 writes At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona NXP Semiconductors will demonstrate Near Field Magnetic Induction technology in a truly wireless earbud including wireless audio streaming from ear to ear. From the article: "The wireless technology being used to enable truly wireless earbuds is based on Near Field Magnetic Induction (NFMI). NFMI features important properties such as ultra-low power consumption and the ability to create a very reliable network in and around the human body, with both high-quality audio and data streaming supported over small distances. An additional integration advantage is also that it requires few external components. NFMI is a short range technology and as such also creates a private network, making it is much less susceptible to interference than 2.4 GHz transceivers.
Who The Fsck wants earbuds anyway?
"That's no good. You stick it inside your shirt, he's gonna find it."
"Well, where do you suggest I put it? All right. You'll hear me?"
"We jack up the volume, we'll be able to tell what you had for lunch."
Careful, don't sit down.
Yet another form of near-field radiation being transmitted across the brain.
Not to seem paranoid, but my reaction to this is a bit skeptical.
Discuss.
During sports and fitness activities, the wires of today's earbuds are a genuine inconvenience and can potentially be unsafe.
Yes, unsafe. I'm guessing the number of people who have died over the years by earbud wire strangling has to be in the singles of digits, and that's including zero.
I'll have to bend down and look for my earbud 'cause the cable's gone....
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Finding them when they fall out
Apparently it uses 1.5mW at 1V.
You can get batteryless radios. Crystal radios (which don't necessarily contain a crystal) get all their power from the radio signal, and they're scarily simple. During the second world war foxhole radios were built out of a razor blade, a pencil, some wire and a set of headphones (instructions: http://www.bizarrelabs.com/fox...) Prisoner of war radios used coal
AFAIK, however, the much lower energy VHF signals for FM isn't capable of running an FM decoder, and probably not an earpiece either.
I wonder if a modern crystal earpiece could usefully pick up low-power AM transmissions from a cellphone in your pocket without spamming everyone around you with radio waves?
I'm happy that this exists, but since my earphones fall out relatively often (ie more than never) I think this might be doomed just because it's not OK to easily lose your very expensive electronic device. Wire to carry signal might be old fashioned, but it also has a job as a tether.
while i'm beside you on the bus, 'cause my body broadcasts better than yours.
These may be ultra low power but they still require a power source either wireless or need to be charged. Aside of the power needed to transmit stereo audio data surely the power of moving the tiny speaker diaphragms is significant enough. Especially if you like some music loud or bass heavy.
I would be a fan of the ear bud type design although it's hard enough to get ones these days that sound well. The ones available in the mid 1990s seemed better to me.
Wireless charging would concern me a little if beamed to my ears. I don't worry excessively about such things normally but doesn't that data rate seem high for that proximity to your brain too?
If they're battery powered, it's just another device to be charged daily along with the phone, the tablet, the smart watch watch etc. I'd think I'd prefer the old fashioned wires until batter technology improves improves.
One more thought, something similar was done for a tiny fm radio also in ear based by Sinclair Research in the 1990s. That didn't catch on either.
earplug eye microphone projectors.... No wait! :(
NSA has them allready
Shoot! A fella could have a good time in Las Vegas if these wireless earbuds ever takeoff!
This kind of tech has existed for a while; it's primarily used in surveillance gear, so that the earphones being worn by someone working in the field can't be seen. The downside of the current state-of-the-art, however, is that the wearer needs to have the induction coil under their clothing, around their neck. I'm really curious how this would work in stereo, personally, as all the solutions I've seen are only mono by requirement; there's no easy way to partition the field into two segments, to separate left from right.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
including wireless audio streaming from ear to ear
So I can hear what my left ear sounds like with my right ear?
That might get confusing...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The next step is direct cochlear implantation, bypassing the mechanical subsystems for truly dynamic fidelity. A fortunate byproduct would be hearing implants for the deaf.
Old Slashdot: Here's how to build your own crystal radio
New Slashdot: Company invents wireless radio. You need it. Go buy it.
NXP has been supplying this technology to the hearing aid industry since 2008. It's used to stream from ear to ear and from a bluetooth device around the neck to ear. For instance, Phonak's HiBAN is a NFMI system, ~300kHz bandwidth around 10.6 MHz. Only problem is people really don't like having to wear the streaming device:
http://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/gc_hq/b2b/en/products/accessories/compilot/_documents/Datasheet_Phonak_ComPilot.pdf
Because that's the way that GSM phones operate.
In order to achieve Full Duplex operation, it receives for half the time, then transmissions for half the time.
These transmit data bursts result in a deeply Amplitude modulated RF envelope.
This is why you hear Brrrp, Brrrp when you put your GSM phone near a pair of cheap loudspeakers.