Conceptual question mark earbuds: can you say "production?"

Ah, concepts. They make us laugh, they make us weep. And in this instance, they make us proud of the human imagination. Designer Yoonsang Kim has provided an oh-so-subtle tweak to the common earbud, leaving each earpiece in the shape of a question mark. Besides looking fairly attractive in-ear, they can also loop together to make carrying them much simpler. For the clean freaks, the design also keeps bacterial growth to a minimum by removing those dark, damp corners so prevalent in traditional 'buds. Seriously, how can these not see mass commercialization?

[StephenD @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:51PM]

Yuck - they might have picked an ear-model without three ugly puncture marks in her lug...

[Freakin Ijit @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:53PM]

They ate her earrings!

[BigDaddyM @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:03PM]

Or they could have used photoshop to clean the ear ring holes...

Healing brush...
M

[nerdtalker @ Aug 23rd 2008 4:39AM]

Her ears look like they're going to "OM NOM NOM" the earbuds...

Honestly, at least people wearing these will look as clueless as the question marks imply they are.

[Level 5 @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:16PM]

seriously, i mean that's why the healing brush exists in photoshop.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Aug 23rd 2008 1:24AM]

Why is this even a big deal?

[hiko36 @ Aug 23rd 2008 5:37AM]

I figure they took her studs out so they wouldn't distract from the earbuds. Personal opinion: the puncture holes are far more distracting then nice little diamond, but that's just me...

[Technex @ Aug 23rd 2008 6:49AM]

@ Abuzar

Because they've done such a poor job.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Aug 23rd 2008 12:39PM]

What I meant was that it wasn't distracting at all. I didn't even notice it till I saw that comment.

You guys are making a big deal out of nothing. Most everyday women DO have ear piercings.

[Hellaphunt @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:53PM]

I like it. I want a mini umbrella now also...

[who? @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:54PM]

Yeah. That wouldn't hurt your ear at all...

My ears are (soon going to be) bleeding.

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:00PM]

It looks more comfortable than anything I've ever seen.

[who? @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:39PM]

No. It looks like the first generation iPod headphones with the middle cut out. Those things hurt!

[Blufire @ Aug 22nd 2008 5:58PM]

They'll have issues with sound leakage (disturbing people around you and also allowing outside noise in). This may be desirable in certain situations, like for runners who have to remain aware of their surroundings and who probably won't have people complaining about the noise coming from their earphones, but this wouldn't work so well on planes, in offices, on buses, etc.

[Jonathan Ziemer @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:06PM]

sir i believe that would be called the frequency force field. all audible frequencies extending beyond the surrounding, "earcophony", are dissolved. Oh that's you God.

[Josh Warner @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:20PM]

Earbuds usually don't have all that strong of output, thanks to the proximity of the driver to the eardrum. So I'm not sure bothering your neighbors/coworkers will be as problematic with these as, say, a pair of Sennheiser HD580/600/650's.

What will bother you is ambient noise. I saw these and thought 'huh, zero isolation.' The normal IEM/earbud market is used to isolation, so to them it could be a tough sell. I'm also not convinced about the driver somehow magically wrapped up in the "?" tube. Probably a concept that will never see the light of day.

[Mr. Ford @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:03PM]

they don't show you the required over the ear muffs that you wear over this unit in order to be able to hear.

[BratPAQ @ Aug 23rd 2008 4:44AM]

panasonic already solved that "stick together" earphone.

http://www.audiooutfitter.com/images/items/050/32050-rp-hje70s.jpg

and the driver, would be too small that the sound would hear like a tiny can, bass? no bass at all.

[Twitchy @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:01AM]

Actually, I think these would be great - I wear a headset all bloody day at work, but these would save me from having to constantly taking my headset off to have a conversation as people tend to shout at me even though only one ear is covered.

[FreeRange @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:00PM]

Okay, so when you photoshop this design it fits perfectly, what about a prototype? And, say, a few differently shaped ears? It strikes me as a rather rigid looking design and I got this funny feeling the human ear isn't nearly so standardized. Nice concept though.

[josh @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:01PM]

I wouldn't want to buy these for one reason and one reason only. No in ear!
also, surely with the earphone not covering the ear you'd get loads of outside sound interrupting your listening?

[sockatume @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:02PM]

If you think you get bad bass off your iPod earphones, just wait until you try something with oblong drivers a few millimetres across... ;)

[KultiVator @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:03PM]

Has somebody invented in invisible driver unit - like, to um, make the sound for these things?

Only a total f*ckwitt would forget the drivers in an earphone design!

[sockatume @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:27PM]

RTFA

[Jeff @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:05PM]

just putting a magical little grill on it won't actually solve the whole "there's no driver" issue...

Concepts are fun and all, but i'm not interested in the least until i see an ENGINEER say "yeah, we can do that" and put it in production.

These things would sound like shit with today's technology, if you could even get them to sound like anything.

[Harry Wagstaff @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:44PM]

If I'm honest, they look more like 9s.

[Jason @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:03PM]

yeah or p's or loopy j's but a ?, I mean there's no "." anywhere

[Evangelion @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:44PM]

I "Hate" my Yellow Teeth.

[listen2c_k_y @ Aug 25th 2008 4:11PM]

What

[Christy McGrory @ Aug 23rd 2008 10:01AM]

The Secrets Dentists don't want you to know about teeth whitening!

[AlexL @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:08PM]

The design is interesting, and may have possible applications, such as the above poster pointed out, when the wearer needs to hear outside noise well when using them.

But the design could be much refined. This design leaves the center completely open, which forces the driver into a semicircular shape on the side. That produces horrible sound, both because of the irregularly shaped driver and because of the placement of the driver does not direct sound directly into the ear canals.

Instead, the driver should be placed in the center of the loop, perhaps connected to the loop by thin columns of plastic. Or if you want to be really innovative, the entire center can be the driver, suspended by flexible wires and the entire loop can be the magnet field moving the driver. This way the phones produce the result it desires - by having the outside loop holding the phones in place, and by allowing open air to pass through, without sacrificing the necessary centrally-placed driver. The ability to lock the two loops together behind the neck is an unnecessary gimmick.

[futurebird @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:19PM]

How on earth do these work? bud speakers are small enough... the speaker in these would be tiny... unless I don't understand how they make sound...

[Keaton @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:33PM]

If they were a little springy and flexible they would fit really well...
I'm not sure how they would sound though... You do need to have some kind of driver and one that small would probably sound quite... What is the word? Tin-Canny?

[Raptor007 @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:51PM]

Gah, sometimes Engadget thinks the stupidest things are cool. I really doubt these many any sound worth listening to... earbuds are already bad enough.

[TheGasMan @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:09PM]

While these look nice, they would quite obviously produce absolutely horrible sound. Think, Engadget, think.

[JAx2000 @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:32PM]

Couldn't they have photoshop'd out the distracting piercing holes? Geez.

[Carmine @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:40PM]

I dunno...they do look beautiful, but they would not isolate sound at all, and unless the outer edges of the question mark are soft, they are going to HUUUUUURRRT your ears if you wear them for more than a couple mins. Would def be interesting to try, but they don't seem very functional.

[Carl @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:15PM]

OMG NICE

[kk @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:16PM]

my earbuds...which I got with my iphone sucks ...big time.
Need a new one.

[Rick Russie @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:38PM]

It all comes down to sound quality. They look good, but if they don't sound good there's really no point IMO.

[Osame @ Aug 23rd 2008 12:13AM]

Again of of those thousand design from braindead students, which never give a thought about. Is this technically possible or not ? This dumbasses just design ,if its lokking good they stop. I bet on you this designer has never seen an earbud disambled or never heard of a speaker driver which produces the sound

[Osame @ Aug 23rd 2008 1:21AM]

Again of of those thousand design from braindead students, which never give a thought about. Is this technically possible or not ? This dumbasses just design ,if its lokking good they stop. I bet on you this designer has never seen an earbud disambled or never heard of a speaker driver which produces the sound

[phacops @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:15AM]

for some voice applications they may work fine. but for music - these would suck.

music needs a sealed ear canal or an air enclosed muff around the ear to work well. good example is a speaker vibrating in the open air without an enclosure... pitiful.

just another example of someone using their eyes and not their brain. it's a science not an art.

[El Taco @ Aug 23rd 2008 1:54PM]

If the sound quality is any better than the cheap headphones you get with MP3 players and ipods, I'd totally get these for any price less than $50. PLEASE go into production!

[austinmichaelcraig @ Aug 23rd 2008 3:40PM]

I've never been able to use earbuds, they never, NEVER stay in. I'd love to try a pair of these.

[gavinovz @ Aug 23rd 2008 3:57PM]

Wow, lol nice. Looks like those could pop out of your ear much easier then most.

[Linoth @ Aug 23rd 2008 4:00PM]

Having worked in a call center I can foresee issues with these being adopted in that sort of environment. Where is everything going to go? It needs space for the speaker, microphone and pick-up, and if it's going to be wireless it will need the antenna and related hardware for that as well. Is this realistically even possible with current technologies? If it's wireless, it's just not suited for call center usage where any privacy policy is in place. For details, please see: DefCon.
I can see this as being like the "contact lens jewellery." A few one-off $500 models that people snap up as "designer," and that's it. People won't like the microphone stalk down in front of your mouth with blue-tooth headsets becoming smaller and smaller.

[Miky @ Aug 23rd 2008 5:43PM]

These would be nice. I'm tired of scraping earwax off foam earbuds.

[josh @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:03PM]

You must have pretty disgusting ears, I rarely have to clean my earphones, especially not needing to be 'tired' of doing it

[josh @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:15PM]

Also, the embarrassing part of having ear wax on foam ear phones is when people see them, imagine your earwax for all to see even when your listening to music?