Lead Inventor:
Tyler Bickford
Multiple earbud headphones connect to single portable audio device:
It is found by researchers that US children prefer to list to portable audio with one ear, and like to share the ""spare"" earbud with family and friends. If it is not used, the dangling ""spare"" earbud can be caught by clothing, bicycle device and so on, causing lots of inconvenience or even accidents. Single-ear listening is also found useful by adults, such as bicyclists, marathon runners, pedestrians, drivers, motorcyclists, joggers and others who wish to listen to music in one ear while the other ear is able to hear traffic or communication.
Nowadays sharable technologies are increasingly popular, especially among young people. But sharing standard earbuds has been noted to be unsanitary. It can spread germs and bacteria, with risks of ear irritation and infection. Sanitary issue is one of the concerns of shared headphone consumers and users. Although disposable covers and parts can solve the problem, they cause inconvenience and create waste.
Earbud headphones connect multiple users to single portable audio device:
This technology shows an earbud-style headphone that allows users to chain multiple individual earpieces together to use one, two, three, or even more individual earbuds at a time. Each unit has a single earpiece attached by a cable to an eighth-inch audio jack that has one male and one female connector. The device includes hardware to convert stereo audio singles to playback in mono. Users can chain multiple earbuds together by plugging the male jack of a second device into the female jack of a device already connected to the audio equipment.
By chaining two devices together, users can listen with both ears or they can share music with a friend. Chaining two or more device together, users can share music with multiple friends. If these devices are owned by multiple member of a friendship group, they can listen to one another’s music by plugging in their own device, without having to use an earbud that has been in someone else’s ear.
Applications:
This technology can be used as a personal accessory of portable media players and other audio devices (iPod, MP3 player, CD, portable DVD, PSP, MD, and Laptop) for both one and two-ears listening, and shared accessories among family and friends.
Advantages:
This technology supports all the common listening practices -- single-ear listening, two-ear listening and shared listening. The chainable earbuds are light to carry and convenient to use. A user can easily switch among different listening practices according to her/his needs. Multiple users can share music in a simple and sanitary way without using shared earbuds.
Patent Status: Copyright
Licensing Status: Available for Licensing and Sponsored Research Support
Publications: The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies, edited by Jason Stanyek and Sumanth Gopinath. Oxford: Oxford University Press