Boffins out earbuds that sound right when inserted wrong
Left is right regardless
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Researchers have devised a method of automatically adjusting a stereo signal to match whichever ears a pair of earphones are squeezed into.
At last, the days of squinting to see the tiny Ls and Rs on your phones may finally be at an end.
A group from the Igarashi Design Interfaces Project in Tokyo put a proximity sensor into one of the earbuds and - hey presto - it works out which ear it has been inserted into.
With some nifty circuit work, the clever cans make sure the right stereo channel is sent to the correct ear regardless of how you've donned your cans, New Scientist reports.
Additionally, if one bud is removed, or passed to a friend for sharing, the headphones will spontaneously switch to mono output. This is detected when a weak current, which runs between the buds, is broken.
The team has even proposed to turn things up to 11, pausing tracks for "what did you just say?" moments, if the headphones are removed.
The concept will be presented at the Intelligent User Interface conference in Lisbon later this month. Rock on. ®
COMMENTS
You colour your ears red and green if you like, I'm happy with both of mine being pinkish.
Even worse
Are pubs wired in stereo, especially when the speakers are split between rooms. One place I used to go to used the balance control to adjust the volume between the bar and the lounge, if someone put on some music from when stereo was in its infancy then one room just got drums.
Really getting wired
> a weak current, which runs between the buds, is broken.
Now that could add an extra dimension to the music. I can just imagine some over zealous royalties enforcer requiring a chip in all new players that turns this current up to 11 if the requisite DRM checks don't pass.
On the matter of detecting which orifice an earbud is inserted into, wouldn't it just be easier to colour-code them?
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