this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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See! No headphones!
WHAT?!
I've found that bone conducting headphones work well for this. They are even secure enough for running and climbing.
Especially if you attach them to your mastoid with a couple wood screws.
I've always been very curious about this technology, but I imagine that they wouldn't be as good at transmitting high frequencies. I'm no audio engineer so it's only a hunch of course. Do they sound comparable to a decent pair of buds in the ear?
They do high frequencies fine, it's low frequencies that they seem to struggle with, or at least, the ones I got do, but then again i did spend a lot less on them than on my over ear ones. They're about on par with in ear ones though.
The ones I have have some speakers aimed at your ear to fill in that part, actually works really well. I can't stand the ear buds you physically insert into your ears, the rubber tipped ones, these have been good to replace my on ears for activity. Plus you can hear what's around you which is why my partner gifted me them.
I'd say so yeah. I switched between headphones a lot recently and they don't stand out. All headphones have their own sound anyway. I just embrace what they highlight and get to know my favourite songs again.
Induced schizophrenia anyone?
Probably won’t do anything about those who actively want everyone else around to hear what they’re listening to.
This could be very handy to be able to still be notifiable while not driving your family crazy.
Makes me think of the episode of Batman Beyond called "Shriek."
Sooooo many potential applications!
Back in the 60s, at one of the Acid Tests, Owsley (who was the Grateful Dead's soundman) used directional mikes and speakers along with tape loops to do a version of this. You could be having a conversation in one part of the venue, wander off somewhere else, and hear your conversation played back. Someone near you wouldn't hear it. It was all pretty much random, it didn't actually track people, but the effect (according to someone I know who was there) was quite unnerving, especially while on a couple hits of acid (also courtesy of Owsley).
I just took a short look at the JXTA specification ; JXTA is abandoned and this is the progress people are pursuing. So sad really.
I mean, yes, comfort is good, yes, this is like a device from Asimov's Foundation, but the problem is kinda solved by headphones already. And yes, it's cool.
(If someone doesn't know what JXTA is - it's Sun's standard for p2p applications, of the "progress of the past that was left unfinished and forgotten" kind, and looking at ZFS, which is a similarly comprehensive thing for filesystems, I have no doubts the world would be better were it finished.)