Courtesy of a few researchers at the Igarashi Design Interfaces Project in Japan, a pair of “Universal Earphones” that automatically switch audio channels when placed in the wrong ear, could be coming out soon.
The headphones being developed have proximity sensors which mean that when the bud is in the incorrect ear, the sensor detects a mismatch and audio channels are swapped, thanks to a small embedded audio circuit.
If you’ve ever shared your headphones with someone to listen to the same song together, you’ll appreciate that these headphones now also create a mono mix of the song. Gone are the days where you get only the left/right channel. It does this by running a weak electrical current from one side to the other. When shared, the connection is broken. Film buffs or gamers will appreciate this for preserving 3D sound that matches on-screen visuals.
The researchers will present their work at the Intelligent User Interface conference in Lisbon, Portugal later this month.
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