Sounding more like a futuristic torture device than the future of portable music technology, the “Batband”, from design studio Studio Banana Things, uses bone conduction and your outer skull to beam music directly to your ear drum.
Imagining for a second that bone conduction doesn’t sound frightening and awful, this exciting new concept could very well be the death of traditional headphones. Assuming no early adopters heads explode a la Mars Attacks.
The technology has been in use for years now, namely in hearing aids, yet this is the first time it has been used for a commercial product. Promising a high quality audio experience, the Batband works by creating vibrations on your outer skull, transmitting sound directly to your inner ear.
This then allows you to listen to your favourite new tunes while simultaneously keeping your outer ear clear to hear everything else going on in the world. That way you can listen to everyone on the bus discuss the sleek sex toy tucked behind your ear.
Allowing you to “make your social lifescape compatible with your private soundscapes” and advertised as “ear free”, the headset uses vibrators that are placed above on your temporal bone or temple, with a third transducer on the back of the head placed over your occipital bone.
Promising to let you “you to hear twice as much, without compromising on comfort, quality or style,” the project is currently still in development, however the Kickstarter has already surpassed it’s goal of $150,000 with 40 days left to go.
Here is a diagram for the technically minded.
You can watch the Kickstarter video here below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozTiogpOol8
