Many of us cannot conceive our training without our own soundtrack: music, in addition to exercise great motivating power can also help us improve our speed in the race or keep up while we’re running. Therefore, music has become an essential training partner for us.
Currently we have specifically designed headphones for sports: do not move, they are resistant to sweat and have a good quality when transmitting sound. We can choose between classic wired headset and even those who are connected via Bluetooth, very comfortable when training. The problem with these types of headphones is that they are ITE, i.e. that go inside the ear and isolate us from the environment in which we move, can be somewhat dangerous if we train outdoors. To avoid this we can count on the headphones bone conduction: we tell you how they work and what models are on the market.
What are they and how bone conduction headphones work?
Traditional sports headphones work with the same premise as the bone conduction: receive an electrical signal emitted from a source (our MP3 player, our heart rate monitor or our mobile phone) and from it generated waves audible. On this last point it is where bone conduction headphones innovate because they do is turn those electrical impulses into a vibration that is transmitted through our bones to the inner ear.
Sports bone conduction headphones are placed ahead Swallow, contact the zygomatic process of the temporal bone (in front of the ear up to the cheekbone) and from there the vibrations transmitted to the inner ear. The sound is not transmitted to the outside, but can only hear the music the person wearing them.
If we train outdoors, especially if we perform cardiovascular activities that we have to move (cycling, running, skating) to cancel the ambient noise can be dangerous: on the one hand, we lose important information about our bodies and we did not hear our own breathing or our footsteps, and on the other we lose touch with the world around us, which can cause accidents in some cases (not hear the horn of a car, another athlete who comes to us or the timbre of a bike weather).
The main advantage of this type of headphones is that keeps us in touch with the environment, thus increasing our security and the information we receive from the outside while still enjoying our music and our favorite podcast.
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Bone conduction headphones that are already on the market
If we talk about headphones specific bone conduction for athletic use we can look at two brands that have already made their pitches.
- Headbones: Waterproof, sweat and dust, Headbones Damson brand headphones are one of our options if we want to acquire some. Headphones are not very light headband (80 grams) with bluetooth connectivity and built–in microphone. They have a built -in lithium ion battery that gives them a range of 8 hours in operation. They have the advantage that you can connect ITE headphones if desired. Its price is 99.99 pounds.
- Bluez Aftershokz 2S: Are much lighter these headphones (41 grams) also with Bluetooth connectivity, rechargeable lithium ion battery with a duration of 6 hours operation and integrated microphone. Its price is $ 99.95.
Other interesting headphones
We cannot stop naming BatBand, pioneers in bone conduction headset for high fidelity music. It is a diadem in this case is placed behind the ears and stays in contact with the temporal bones and the occipital. It is as discreet as the models we have seen, that could easily be confused with normal Bluetooth headset, but a few questioning looks sure to take you if you go with BatBand the street.
Samsung has just introduced its new wireless headphones IconX specifically designed for fitness and, despite not having bone conduction technology, it does give us the option to hear the ambient sound at the same time we hear our favorite music. In addition, they collect information of our career as we are training.
Do you think that the bone conduction succeed in the world of fitness?
