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Parrot puts on headphone gesture gadgetry

Moves with the music

Cloud based data management

CES 2012

CES 2012 Week

Parrot ruffled feathers at CES 2012 this week with the second generation of its smartphone-controlled quadricopter, the AR.Drone 2.0, however the company has much more that just that up its sleeve, also launching a set of snazzy Bluetooth headphones that boast NFC connectivity and a built-in accelerometer.

The Zik Parrot by Stark are over-ear Bluetooth headphones packed with high-tech features. For starters, all playback is handled with gestures. Swiping one's finger up the earpiece adjusts volume, while swiping forward skips tracks. Simples.

Zik Parrot by Stark

Utilising the accelerometer, the headphones detect when a user removes them from their bonnet and automatically pauses the music, continuing playback when put back on again.

Then, making use of its NFC capabilities, users can tap their phone to the cans and easily connect the two. There's a battery life of approximately 5 hours as well as various built in microphones for active noise control and the entended use as a hands-free kit.

The Zik Parrot by Stark haven't been given an official release date or price structure, but we expect them to be on the premium side of the financial fence when such details do appear. ®

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abuse

"Swiping one's finger up the earpiece adjusts volume, while swiping forward skips tracks." It's going to be hard to resist slyly swiping people's headphones on the tube for s&g's
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"Swiping one's finger up the earpiece adjusts volume..."

Not sure that's a good idea... Merry pranksters could seriously damage one's hearing by making use of this particular feature without notice.

Also, there are bound to be instances where certain fabrics, etc. could act like said finger, and cause unexpected (as well as painful) increases in volume.

At a minimum, the phones should have a physical lock-out switch that prevents the local volume control from activating. Miscreants would then have to physically interact with the headphones at a much more noticeable level, thereby letting the user know that unwanted tomfoolery is occurring.

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Heard you the first time, no need to repeat...

How about setting the volume on the playback device on the desired volume and the headphones to maximum? That solves it, right? Oh and frogs do jump out of the water before it reaches boiling point. I would imagine people would notice a certain increase in volume...

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