--On Monday, September 10, 2018 2:42 PM -0700 Brian Milburn - K6BPM via SBARC-list sbarc-list@lists.netlojix.com wrote:
We need these!
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/09/military-now-has-tooth-mics-in...
Pretty cool, but I'd have to challenge the statement that they "are using a new auditory pathway." My father owned a product called a "bone phone" in the late 70's (40 years ago) where a "cordless telephone" was placed in your shirt pocket and a device wired to that telephone was placed behind your ear. That device used bone conduction for the auditory path. He says people could hear him very well, although he had a little difficulty hearing the other party.
This was a $10-$20 "Uniden" type product at that time; it wasn't a $10M funded project and was probably available through the DAK catalog, or some similar outlet. (Sometimes you gotta wonder if people are milking the government to re-do products that have already been proven out and commoditized).
Supposedly, Beethoven "invented" (maybe "discovered" would be more appropriate) bone conduction when he (being almost deaf) found a way to hear music through his jawbone by biting on a rod attached to his piano. That was a lot more than 40 years ago... :-)
Implantable hearing aids use bone conduction....
What will be really cool is when "outgoing sound is sent to a radio transmitter on the neck" instead becomes, "outgoing sound is sent to a radio transmitter IN the neck" and doesn't require the second radio unit - fully disguised. (Kind of like human microchip implants - always wants to do that to open my doors without a key, etc., but I digress).
Check out this YouTube video of another product also called the Bone Phone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De0TxZzqpSg
Here is a bone conduction rabbit hole for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De0TxZzqpSg http://www.retrothing.com/2006/01/the_bone_fone_r.html http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/remember-the-bone-phone.571010/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gadgets/comments/lxpyc/what_ever_happened_to_the_bone_fone_did_the/
Here is one that talks about the military using this technology a long time ago: https://www.everydayhearing.com/hearing-technology/articles/bone-conduction-headphones/
I used to be very into all things audio (from an engineering standpoint), so this was one topic that was of great interest to me back in "the day"...
Ken