The History of Bone Conduction Headphones

Bone conduction headphones have been helping people in difficult situations ever since 19th-century telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell first wrapped a metal plate in rubber and taped it to his ears to transmit sound. A sound is heard below. Inventors and acoustic engineers have long known that activating the inner ear through the skull can provide an efficient way to hear sounds, even in very noisy environments.

The first bone conduction headphones were developed during World War I as a way for soldiers in the trenches to communicate with each other and with their superiors. Geissler tubes, used in early radio transmissions, were adapted for use as bone-conduction headphones. This early version was large and unwieldy but performed well enough that it was adopted by the military.

After the war, bone conduction headphones became more compact and were used in a variety of situations, including by pilots and air traffic controllers. In the 1970s, bone conduction headphones were introduced that could be worn around the neck, and they quickly became popular with athletes and others who needed to hear clearly while performing activities that required their hands.

Today, bone conduction headphones are smaller and more comfortable than ever before and are used in a variety of settings from industrial workplaces to classrooms. They are increasingly used by people with hearing loss to carry sound into their ears without having to wear traditional hearing aids.

Bone conduction headphones work by vibrating the skull and then transmitting sound to the inner ear. This type of hearing aid does not require an ear canal mold and can be used with or without a hearing aid. Bone conduction headphones are comfortable to wear and almost invisible when worn.

The following 4 major industries have benefited from bone conduction technology:

Hearing Aid Users. Since 1977, more than 100,000 people with hearing loss have been fitted with bone conduction devices called BAHAs (bone-anchored hearing aids). Fittingly, these headphones are also ideal for people who wear in-ear hearing aids. Yes, if you haven’t tried it, it’s definitely possible to wear headphones while wearing hearing aids.

Military Communications. The military was one of the first to adopt bone conduction technology, using behind-the-ear headphones to communicate on the battlefield. This is a significant improvement over field communications as it allows the user to be fully aware of ambient sounds (since the earphones are located behind the back rather than in the ears) while also being able to transmit wirelessly via bone conduction.

Sports Headphones. Bone-conduction headphones are becoming increasingly popular in the music industry. Technology that has been incorporated into the hearing care industry for years is now being used in the music media industry as a different way to listen.

In 2008, Audio Bone became one of the first mainstream bone-conduction headphones to enter the field of sports headphones. They claim the sound quality is the same, while also allowing users to hear ambient noise since the headphones don't actually cover any part of the ear. The technology is growing in popularity among the growing headphone community, especially among runners or cyclists who want both music and exposure to ambient sounds (i.e. cars passing by) for safety.

Scuba Diving. Using bone conduction underwater is amazing, there's no other way to describe it. While this technology was actually patented back in 1996, Casio was one of the first companies to popularize it in scuba diving with its Logosease device.

The device is essentially an underwater transceiver that uses bone conduction combined with ultrasound in the 32 kHz range to enable wireless communication as long as you're within visual range.

Environmental Noise Solutions. Even Apple is starting to realize the benefits of making headphones that give users full awareness of their surroundings and improve speech recognition in ambient conditions.

If you're looking for a way to hear clearer without wearing bulky hearing aids, bone-conduction headphones may be the right solution for you. If you want to buy bone-conduction headphones, please contact us. ACCMercado provides professional consumer electronics solutions. We provide high-quality bone-conduction headphones, Bluetooth headphones, noise-canceling headphones, etc. We can provide you with wholesale options on all products to meet your specific business needs and save you money with competitive discount rates on bulk orders. We have established ACC Mercado branches in Dongguan, Yiwu, Italy, France, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Morocco, and other places to better implement all aspects of solutions.