Bone headphones: what they are and how they work
How Bone Headphones Work
The principle of their work is quite simple. A person has 2 ways of perceiving sound — through the air and, so to speak, "through the bone". With bone conduction of sound, sound waves are decoded and transformed into vibrations that are sent bypassing the outer ear to the inner one, causing vibrations of the cochlea. For an absolutely healthy person, "both versions" are available, but in some cases one of them may be the only way to hear. The most striking example was Beethoven, who in the last years of his life became almost completely deaf and could perceive music exclusively by applying various sound-conducting tubes to the bones of the skull.
If we talk about consumer headphones, then outwardly they are not too different from ordinary headphones. Only instead of capsules with speakers, they are equipped with a pair of special plates that transmit sound vibrations to the bone. They do not overlap the auricle, like ordinary headphones, but are superimposed near each ear, just below the temple, transmitting vibrations directly to the bone, from which the inner ear "reads data". That is why our own voice always seems to us to be lower and fuller than how people around us hear it. Well, or if you've been to a good nightclub, you probably felt how the drum beat literally raises the diaphragm. Close your ears and nothing will change, the body will still perceive sound vibrations on the physical level.
Who will benefit from bone headphones?
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To be honest, we are not sure that bone headphones should be considered as a replacement for the main pair of earbuds. Rather, it is a highly specialized gadget that will be in some specific situation. Let's look at some examples:
- Sports and active recreation. And there's a whole bunch of advantages. In the gym, you can safely train with a trainer without pulling the headphones out of your ears after each approach. In team games like football or paintball (let's imagine for a moment that this is also a sport), you can voice what is happening with a suitable soundtrack. And at the same time, you will hear your teammates and rivals perfectly. Agree, it would be cool to run in a mini football to the JXL remix of "A Little Less Conversation", as in that legendary Nike advertisement.
- Continuous communication. You don't have to turn off the background music while you and your friend are having a small talk. Or at work, when you want to listen to music, but you need to stay connected with colleagues.
- An interesting alternative to a car headset. And what, the ears are free, the wires are not hanging anywhere, what is happening on the road is clearly audible.
- The same can be said for cyclists, skateboarders, owners of unicycles and gyroscuters. In vacuum headphones, you can safely drive on the impassable part, but on the road you definitely should not isolate yourself from the outside world. Life is more expensive than music. But with bone headphones, you can ride without worrying that you won't hear the sound of an approaching tram or the signal of a minibus rushing around the corner.
- If we talk about the medical purpose, the headphones with bone conduction, they are addressed to patients with so-called conductive hearing loss, in which the structures of the outer ear and middle ear are affected. Or, for example, people with microtia, that is, the absence of auricles.
- Bone conduction of sound is widely in demand in the army and the security industry, when, for example, it is necessary to control what is happening around, receiving commands in parallel.
Who makes bone headphones
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To date, AfterShokz is the leader of this small market, and most of the models of other companies are somehow copied from their three most popular models. The brand did not appear out of the blue and for a long time aimed towards the smart glasses market. But after the collapse of Google Glass, the idea was abandoned and they decided to focus on almost the only thing that was brought to mind there. Namely, headphones with bone conduction.
When the question was asked at one of the first meetings who needed it at all, one of the project managers threw a folder with statistics on the table. As it turned out, in the UK alone in 2016, about 20K accidents involving cyclists happened, of which 15% were seriously injured, and 109 people died (6 of them children). We will not delve into statistics, but in other Western countries the picture was similar.
It is in athletes that the brand sees its main audience. And the concept of AfterShokz "Hear more", or simply put: listen to music, but keep your ears open and control the situation on the roads, brought them to all the "tops" and ratings of the best sports headphones. This is indirectly confirmed by the recognition from major brands like Apple, which officially sells AfterShokz in the AppStore.
The most popular model in the AfterShokz range is the Trekz Air headphones. To be honest, they feel very unusual. Those who are accustomed to vacuum headphones will be unaccustomed to reach out to the ear, trying to fix the earbud that has fallen out of the ear. But you do not need to constantly pull the earphone and ask the person "eh?" as soon as he opened his mouth. As for the sound quality, it is ambiguous. Before the first tests, we hoped that at best they would just be heard. In the worst case, there will be a little legible porridge, as if a huge chocolate monster is chewing a cassette with your favorite track.
In fact, it turned out that a high-quality model can sound be healthy: there will be bass, dynamics, and pressure. Naturally, the quality is not as high as that of high-quality dynamic headphones, but it is quite decent. Do you want to be surprised? Turn on the track "Bad Kingdom" by Moderat in AfterShokz Trekz Air and be surprised by the bass density. The baseheads will definitely be enough, the rest will probably want to use the equalizer.
At the same time, the sound slightly lacks the upper frequencies. By nature, they are very similar to swimming models of the type JBL Endurance Dive , in which the speakers are closed and the sound is transmitted through a protective membrane. In general, a lot depends on the peculiarities of physiology, perception and environment. If there is a lot of noise around, then the music is perceived differently than in ordinary open headphones. The brain seems to filter the amount of incoming information so as not to overload.
Visually, the model looks unusual, however, like all headphones of this type. On one side there is a power button, on the inner arm there are other controls like pause and volume. This is a sports-oriented model and it weighs only 30 grams. Although visually it seems that this is not the case. Looks can be deceiving. Among other advantages, we note a reliable ear mount, a case that is not afraid of dust, rain and sweat drops (IPX55 standard), a fairly high-quality microphone that allows you to use headphones as a headset and support Multipoint technology for simultaneous connection to multiple devices. The battery life here is slightly better than that of conventional wireless headphones, they have lived with us for almost 6 hours. As promised on the box. But the price is much higher than other wireless models.
Are bone headphones dangerous?
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No, for a long time it was a purely medical topic, many clinical studies were conducted and packs of various developments were tried. The very essence of sound transmission with a small vibration looks as peaceful as possible. To "break the head" or "crush the skull", such bone headphones must be hundreds of times more powerful. If it were so critically dangerous, then most likely in early childhood we would have been "blown away" by the power of our own children's crying.
Result
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We hope this material has helped you better understand this interesting topic and understand whether you need such headphones or not. And to simplify perception, we suggest summarizing the main pros and cons of bone headphones.
Positive: convenience, safety on the road, the ability to hear the interlocutor and what is happening around
Cons: the sound quality is much lower than that of conventional wired headphones, there is no sound insulation.
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