It’s funny how biometric never gets to the ear since it is a known fact that no two person ears are the same. Ok. That will be totally weird. Anywho, we are not going to talk about the anatomy of the ear, but we heard the science of the shape of our ears had some in-ear headphones makers wanting to custom earbuds for each individual – that’s if, of course, the individual is willing to pay the price, which usually is, how do you say? Alarming? However, there’s a Netherlands-based outfit, Allocacoc, said it has discovered that, despite the differences in individual’s ears, they actually found there is actually a common shape in all ears.
This universal region is located at the outer ear canal and it has a shape like a bean. Yep. You heard that right. Humans have beanie ears! And it is with this knowledge, Allocacoc Audio sets out to design a one-size-fits-all earphone which, not surprisingly, has earbuds that are shaped like beans and aptly calls it earBeans. So, here it is, the soft silicone earbuds that is designed for that universal region which, when worn, the upper and lower point of the ‘bean’ supposedly will offer the support required to keep the earbuds in place and with medical-grade micro-speakers used in hearing aid industry thrown into the mix, you will be getting a one-size-fits-all earbuds that’s secure, comfortable and delivers acoustic sound with “excellent details.”
To be honest, I am not quite sure about using medical-grade drivers over custom tuned drivers, but we will just take Allocacoc’s words for it. In any case, Allocacoc Audio was probably left with little options if they wished to create a pair of in-ear headphones that has earbud this tiny. Speaking of tiny, the resulting earbuds actually weighs a feather weight of mere 1 gram. Well, not that the typical 3.5-4g earbuds will weigh us down in anyway, but hey, if can weigh almost nothing, why not?
Moreover, because of its tiny form and because it fits into the bean-shaped outer ear canal, earBeans will be totally unobtrusive and affords you to do what majority of the earbuds can’t: sleep with it on, specifically, sleeping on your side. This, I have to agree is a ‘problem’ the earphone industry has never address until earBeans comes along. Additionally, Allocacoc said that earBeans is actually non side biased. This means, there’s no need to differentiate left or right side when wearing. Any side is always the right side. How? I have no idea. Maybe, beans? I don’t know. I am not going to lie.
I am totally intrigued by earBeans in-ear headphones’ propositions and even more so when I knew that each pair of earBeans is going for as low as 25 euros (roughly US$27). But there’s a catch here. This rock-bottom price can only realized if the product’s Kickstarter campaign meets its funding goal of €4,000. So, if you are impressed, then you may want to consider showing earBeans some love by backing its campaign.
Images courtesy of Allocacoc Audio.
Submitted via TIP US page.