The concept of bone conduction hearing devices has been toyed with since the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven first introduced the idea to the world. You will likely know that Beethoven was nearly completely deaf but he used bone conduction hearing to compose some of the most well known musical masterpieces the world has ever known.
Beethoven did this by placing a metal rod between his teeth and attaching the other end to his piano. The vibrations travelled through the metal rod and into his inner ear, essentially bypassing the eardrum and allowing him to listen as he composed his masterpieces.
With the origin of bone conduction hearing covered, let’s now take a look into what the future of this technology holds for us by looking at a few applications that the bright minds of several different companies have put on the market recently and also, what the future may hold.
Today there are applications for this type of hearing that you likely will not have heard of. The most obvious application that you will have heard of are of course hearing aids but there are others. This is the perfect way for those with difficuly hearing due to damaged eardrums due to the fact that sound which is listened to in this manner does not require the eardrum to be heard. Vibration of air is how we normally hear but with bone conduction the vibrations travel directly to the inner ear.
An example of a company which uses this method to help people listen to music is the ‘Audio Bone’ company. Audio Bone claim that they have perfected the technology and their big sales pitch is the fact that you can listen to music without blocking the ear canals with regular headphones. This makes for a much safer way of listening to music when you are on the move or even at work.
Those who like water sports will also be interested to hear that there are applications of bone conduction hearing at work for these activities also. Finis have designed and put on sale a form of bone conduction headphones that are completely waterproof, they can be used for hours underwater and allow you to listen to crystal clear music while taking a long dive, while long distance swimming, white water rafting or whatever. You name a water related activity and these bone conduction headphones are the perfect music listening option for you.
It will be interesting to see what other applications come out in the future with regards to bone conduction technology. Already, telephone applications are in the works to put bone conduction to work so the developments in this area will be an exciting thing to watch. They have a promising product in the Motorola XH1 bone conducting headset for the Iphone which is due on the market any time now.
If you are interested in reading more about bone conduction headphones for the water you can do so at the previous link where we have spoken more on the subject at mindmoneybodybrain.com