Wireless MP3 Player Earbuds Controlled With Your Teeth
This article is more than 2 years old
I used to be one of those people that said, “I’m perfectly happy wearing these earphones that cover my entire ear canal and will never have time for those little earbuds.” And now I’m one of those people who will spend a half-hour looking for my earbuds to listen to while doing 15 minutes’ worth of work. Now three intelligent engineers, through their company Greenwing Audio, have developed Split, a pair of teeny wireless mp3 players that fit inside your ears. You don’t need to connect them to a standalone player, because the inch-long devices have memory chips in them. They don’t even need to connect to each other. And you control them with your teeth! I cannot imagine how quickly I would misplace these things.
As is per usual when we talk about innovative and useful technology, you can’t just run out and buy this in a store just yet. You have to donate money to their Kickstarter campaign. But it’s hardly a bad thing, as without it, we’d probably have never heard about Greenwing. With 27 days to go, a little over $30,000 has been raised towards a $435,000 goal. But more people means more money, so go out and tell your friends. You know, the ones who only talk about detangling the cords of headphones. Those guys are the pits.
The way the Split works is deceptively simple. Each unit contains a circuit board, button cell battery, memory chip, processor, a three-axis accelerometer, and a crystal clock. The latter is what allows you to hear the same music in both ears without the earpieces needing to be connected via Bluetooth or WiFi. So really, instead of both pieces playing the same file, each is playing a single file simultaneously.
When you want to change a track, all you have to do is bite down softly and the accelerometer picks up the motion. If you want to turn the volume up or down, bite down twice in a row. Don’t worry, though. You won’t be biting down constantly. You can change the number and range or preset volumes when the Split is hooked up to a computer. And if you want to mute it, just tap the side of one of the earbuds. Take a look at a few of the images below.
The board above is folded into three in order to fit into each of the Split earpieces. So you can see that the memory is pretty limited. Currently, only 256mb of storage space, or about 24 songs, will fit on the Split. (And if you like black metal or doom metal, then only about three songs will fit.) Keep in mind that these are best used when exercising or some other activity where excess electronics are a hassle. To charge them, you just hook it up to a magnet attached to a USB cable. What could be easier? (No answers, please.)
So, if you’ve been needing something to listen to the garbage on the Catching Fire soundtrack, or just an informative a capella version of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” here’s your product. Check out the informational promo video below.
