Inside Outdoor Spring 2020 Issue

Inside Outdoor | SPRING 2020 30 By Mark Orloff Down to the Bone H eadphone and speaker brands traditionally have invested in one style of sound output: producing frequencies that are carried by air. But what if the source could go into your ear via another medium? This can be done through bone conduction, which is becoming increasingly popular espe- cially in headphones. Imagine yourself with a hearing problem; regular headphones won’t do the trick. The same issue applies to environments too dense for sound waves to travel (underwater for scuba divers) or where spatial awareness is vital (on a battlefield for soldiers). By going through the temporal bones and into your inner ear, bone conduction can bypass these specific obstacles. It’s an atypical way to enjoy your music or communicate on the go, but bone conduction definitely serves its purpose. As a result, headphones with this tech are becoming progressively popular across the globe. Analysts at 360 Research predict that bone con- duction headphones will experience a compound annual growth rate of more than 20 percent through 2024, a healthy increase for even new-age tech. In short, bone conduction head- phones are headphones that transmit sound via vibration of the temporal bones and into the inner ear. It essen- tially skips the usage of the outer and middle ear to transmit sound via air particle vibration. Thanks to advancements in this technology, bone conduction has become more mainstream and found its way into consumer headphones. Brands such as AfterShokz are syn- onymous with bone conduction head- phones, and other companies including Pyle have recently focused on budget- friendly models. Bone conduction sounds like a complicated process, but its applica- tion is actually quite simple. Vibra- tions are created by the audio device and released directly on the bones above the jaw. The frequencies are then sent to the inner part of the ear and into your brain. In turn, there’s no need to place drivers over or inside the ears in the way that tradi- tional headphones do. A primer on bone conduction technology in headphones TECH SAVVY