Are you tired of crappy ear buds that won't stay in? Are you sick of not being able to hear your co-workers when they call your name? StudioBanana Things might have the answer to your woes with a new Kickstarter project titled Batband, which promises to free your social hearing ear and transmit music through vibrations in your skull.
Batband promises a "high fidelity acoustic experience via an innovative bone conduction system." We have a private inner ear and a social outer ear, the Kickstarter page explains. Batband essentially wraps around the back of your head and subtly vibrates the sound through the bones in your head to tap into your inner ear, thus freeing up your outer ear to take in the sounds around you.
The device is controlled through Google-Glass-like gestures on either side of your temple. The right side controls volume with a few taps and allows you to skip songs or go to previous tracks on your playlists. Once you sync the device up to your phone via Bluetooth, you can also take and control calls via the left side button.
The creators say that the design is comfortable and minimizes sound leakage thanks to inner padding. However, that's yet to be seen and it's still a little jarring to see this futuristic band strapped to the back of someone's head. It's also pretty large and it's currently unclear how well it would stay on your head. Furthermore, the Kickstarter page claims, "Its discreet use means that any vocal content you receive is nearly inaudible to outsiders." However, that might be a nice way of putting it as you can hear the music faintly emanating from the band as new users try out the Batband in the promotional video.
A lot of questions still remain of this product, like is it good for running or waterproof? But, as we move fast into an era of Bluetooth headphones, this could be a really interesting new technology -- that is if the price is right.
Check out the Kickstarter video below and visit their page for more information or to back the product.
