Bone Conduction Headphones

Bone Conduction Headphones

I love technology and I will never lose my wonderment in what it gives us. Decades of research led to GPS tracking, and decades of work led to enhanced transmission of sound and video. And we just take it all for granted. To me, GPS is like magic, as I struggle to understand how a satellite that is so far away and which spreads its signal so wide can manage to get picked up by my phone.

And, so, I love listening to my digital radio and podcasts, and where my earbuds are so important to me. I listen to these on my bike, and love listening to a podcast while I battle against the weather. Personally, I don’t like to hear my surroundings, and typically just use one earbud on Teams calls and in listening to podcasts and audible books. Unfortunately, I lost one of my earbuds, so I decided I would give some bone conduction headphones a go:

Personally, I really didn’t think they would work well. With this, they vibrate the bone near your ear. This is possible as bone is a good conductor of sound ways, especially for low-frequency signals. The great advantage is that the sound bypasses the ear canal and thus reduces the opportunities for infection and ear damage. But, the great advantage is that you can hear everything around you and yourself speaking. In fact, you could have a blocked ear, and still be able to hear sound transmitted through bone, aka bone conduction. This is perfect for jogging, cycling and swimming. Ludwig van Beethoven is thought to have used this method to “hear” music after he had gone deaf.

And, so, are they good? Yes. They are fantastic and better than my earbuds. Overall, they are comtfortable too to wear. The only downside is that they don’t fit into a pocket-size container. But they work, and I still think they feel like science fiction. Basically, it shows what great research work can do, and I can’t wait to get on my bike or into the pool to try them.