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86 Comments
- RadiantBeing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+49Well, what do you call vibrations transmitted through water like dolphins and whales use? Sound can be transmitted through a number of media. In this case, it is transmitted through via your skull.
- CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -7/+44Supposedly they're not vibrating the air they're vibrating your scull :/
- Skeuomorph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Been there done that ... Bone Fone from the 70's and early 80's...
http://www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/magicalgadget/index3.html
"One of the many great inventions publicized by the incredible JS&A Group, the Bone Fone put a unique spin on personal stereos--with its wrap-around design unique speaker placement, the vibrations "resonate through your bones--all the way to the sensitive bones of your inner ear" giving the listener breathtaking sound.
The Bone Fone was one of the many novelty radios reaching a niche radio buyers back in the '70s and early '80s. Joggers, cyclists and disco roller skaters loved the convenience of the handy little radio while exercising; techno-weenies like us appreciated the unusual approach toward high quality stereo sound. The Bone Fone wasn't cheap--it cost over $70 US but included lycra sleeves in an array of colors and even a fabric pattern to create your own." - Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Actually your ears are used for your sense of balance as well.
- bigballajrich, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14"creating the illusion of sound"...why?
- affanjam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13We were so technologically advance in the 70's
- xipotec, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Why not a direct link to the article? The blog had nothing extra.
- jollyroger814, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12One day people will realize that Bose isn't as great as they are cracked up to be.
- billisdog, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14"My thoughts exactly. But maybe it does less damage to your hearing at higher volumes."
And more damage to your skull instead? - corkster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Actual Link:
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/FR/TNKS/TNKSHM/newpro/
Bloody Hell, will people please stop linking to blogs, especially if the link to the actual site is RIGHT THERE! - account, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@zweben,
The eardrum can be repaired if damaged, but cilia, which are tiny hair cells located in the basilar membrane of the cochlea can not be repaired. If the cilia stop working, there are no surgical or medical procedures to fix this. - loganrapp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9No kidding - in fact, the blog had MUCH LESS to offer.
Can we not have to go through twelve levels of blog ***** to find the source of the story? - Bega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'd assume the point of this is to produce less noise to others, probably good for libraries and such.
- Dosquatch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@zweben: Some forms of hearing impairment can be caused by scarring of the eardrums, but the vast majority is caused by damage to cilia (tiny hairs) in the inner ear (also linked to tinnitus, see below). Overstimulation of any sort to the cilia can cause this sort of damage, even "fake" sound like the product here describes. (edit@account: great minds, or something like that)
http://www.ata.org/about_tinnitus/consumer/faq.html#4
Noise-induced hearing loss - Exposure to loud noises can damage and even destroy hair cells, called cilia, in the inner ear. Once damaged, these hair cells cannot be renewed or replaced. Millions of Americans have hearing loss due to noise exposure, and up to 90 percent of all tinnitus patients have some level of noise-induced hearing loss. - lorensingley, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7well the gist of it is that it produces an ultra high frequency wave that when coming in contact with your scull will "refract" and produce a mix of various frequencies that will sound like whatever song or signal you would expect to hear. But the title is false really, because even though our ear are not sensitive enough to hear the raw frequency it is STILL sound.
- CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7My thoughts exactly. But maybe it does less damage to your hearing at higher volumes.
- diggmaddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5By illusion of sound, they mean to say that they actually are NOT producing sound waves in the air. Sound in the air hits our ear drums and vibrates that (transfer of energy from sound to the ear), which is interpreted by our brain as the sound. Now, instead of using the air as the medium, they have restricted it's propagation to just within our skull. Most headphones (ear bud or other) can be heard far away from the person who is wearing them. If these headphones are not in contact with your skull, you will hear absolutely NOTHING. And you can hear at as high volume as you want, without giving even the slightest idea to your neighbor, of what's going on in your ear. That raises the standard for "personal" entertainment.
- zweben, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6The way I understand it, these headphones actually bypass the eardrum by transmiting the vibrations directly to the bones in your inner ear, instead of letting the vibration of the eardrum move the bones as with regular sound.
I believe the type of hearing damage caused by loud sounds is because of damage to the eardrum, so it seems that these headphones would not cause hearing damage, at least not in the same way as regular headphones would.
I don't see how it's going to be easy to make these sound good though. As dancrew said below, bone isn't going to transmit vibrations as well as air (it's not as uniform), so the only reason you would want this technology (other than possible prevention of hearing damage) over conventional headphones is for the isolation of sound, which in ear monitors already do very well anyway.
I doubt this will prove to be much more than a gimmic. - PDAIsAOk, on 10/12/2007, -11/+16Isnt that what sound is? Vibrations of air?
- gwjc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I tried a bonefone radio back in the before time; they were more a gimmick than a replacement for serious headphones.
- ZerozenOnes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Aside frrom the "why bother" factor, I don't see how this can provide better quality sound. Still, digg just because as far as I am concerned, tech gadgets should be manufactured on a "because we can" basis.
And no, I really dont see how this can lead to overconsumption... - joeydoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I want implants for my ears that are powered off my body's own movement energy and can create a full 'absolute' (not 5.1, 7.1, 10.1) point surround system (which also tracks my head movements so that sounds appear stationary) and be able to accept a widerange of wireless input signals. Eg. Normal radio -> Wifi -> anything you tune it to (with built in HD digital audio decoding). So I can also hear when I am in an access point as another example. Also with the aid of parabolic or other external microphones give me super hearing.
I am guessing this will happen at some point in the future. Now that will be VERY cool.
On the 'digg' how well will this device do higher frequency sounds? I would think it would work fine on the base but how the hell does it do the 1->16K? Everything would sound like it was underwater. - unitedkronos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Imagine what IDM or Speedcore would do your skull when using these...
- flipside89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Isn't this the thing from Metal Gear Solid...
- whackaxe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3we'll all die from people with ***** music on MP3 phones before this is commercialized :(
- AKBryant54, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5idk! but i really want to buy them
where can i get a pair? - loganrapp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Bose active canceling headphones are nice, but sure as hell not $300 nice.
- javierror, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2scroll down to the third article. the "Adventure Vision"
lol, it's the Virtual Boy's older brother. - mindlessxd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This gives new meaning to "rattling your brains"... :D
- javierror, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2you know nothing about sound. leave my classroom!
- sremick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Grrr, big pet peeve of mine (and many others).
Hence it's #4 on the Guide to Good Digg Submissions ;)
http://digg.com/design/AMAZING_BEST_GUIDE_2_POSTING_EFECTIVE_DIGG_STORYS_EVAR_
When will people learn? - Sasabune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Someday we'll be able to get implants that allow a cable to be plugged straight to the auditory nerve. That way you can up the volume without fear of hearing loss! And what about an optic nerve plug? How cool would that be?
- guitarpro411, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1remeber those old lolly pop things that you pressed the button and it "vibrated" the song into the head?? I bet its kinda like that, just more harmful to your brain and less harmful to your teeth
- Skeuomorph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No, JimShaw, you're not the only one. Check my comment from 5 hrs earlier--links to a URL with a picture and everything...
- mikeismyname, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1one flew over the cuckoos nest, anyone?
- Corvillus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Technically, they still produce sound, since sound is nothing more than vibrations through a medium (any medium, not necessarily air), detectable by hearing organs. All this does is use bone as the transfer medium instead of air.
- Rabid_Llama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, I think this is precisely the point. They don't produce sound waves in the air, just in your skull, so nobody else can hear anything.
- mystdrkn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Something similar* has been around for a bit longer, for people with single-sided deafness / unilateral hearing loss.
* http://www.umm.edu/otolaryngology/baha.html - herbstwerk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2i want to listen to some merzbow with those....
- bilbus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That does not sound safe, do you really want your skull vibrating? Last time i checked my skull was not designed for vibrating.
- Moliket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Im a speech and hearing science major, and bone conduction has been around for at least 60 yrs, and has enabled many patients w/ a conductive hearing loss the chance to hear again, they are actually producing sound since sound is just a vibration anyway, and they are in no way harmful to the hearing mechanism.
- timbudtwo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These things arent dangerous. Anyone remember the old nickelodeon sucker things that transmitted sound to your head when you put the lolipop on your teeth? And these things have been around for AGES. But not for regular consumers, more for people with hearing loss due to a deformity of some kind.
- farmerwal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1these things are old skool - been there done that.
- alwinh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are two kinds of hearing loss, sensory and conductive. No cochlea, damaged nerve, etc is sensory. No ossicles (hearing bones), immobile ear drum, and the like = conductive.
Bone conduction aids help people with conductive loss, but are useless to folks with neurosensory loss. - mylrea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1those were really cool.
- ErikPersson, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1Has nobody here played metal gear solid?
Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEE!!! - Sasabune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll be damned these kind of devices already exist, they don't reproduce sound nowhere near perfectly though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implants - TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't understand completely. Can some one hear this with full deafness? No Cochlea?
Eric Wilson - Webler707, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sorry guys, but this is not new tech- it has been used for underwater acoustics for some time now.
http://finisinc.com/products-swimp3.shtml - CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"And more damage to your skull instead?"
I don't know, I didn't create them. -
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