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GADGETS: Numb Skulls & Ear Buds

Some new products deliver sound through your bones. (Stick a finger in your ear to IMPROVE your hearing???) Others deliver comfort with good sound, for folks addicted to their portable MP3 players.

Cell phone users who wrestle with background noise (of other cell phone users wrestling with the background noise of other cell phone... ?) may find relief in some new Sanyo handsets that send sounds right through the skull.

The new Vibephone TS41 works like a regular handset when opened, but when closed it merely vibrates. Holding the set against the face transmits the gentle sound waves directly through the bones of the face and skull to the ear. Sanyo spokesperson Kiyoshi Yamasaki reports, "The voice sounds clear even if you're wearing earplugs."

Rival NTT DoCoMo is experimenting with a model called FingerWhisper, which consists only of a vibrating wristband with a microphone. To listen, a user merely sticks a finger into the ear, and the wristband's vibrations are delivered along the finger bone.

Read about Sanyo's VibePhone from USA Today, or directly from the company site

Get the early buzz on NTT DoCoMo's Finger Whisper from the BBC, or directly from the company site

While we're putting things into our ears... In the Dec. 15, 2003 issue of Business Week, technology writer Stephen Wildstrom lamented about ear buds, the little items that are supposed to stay in our ears and deliver the nice sounds created by our portable music players (but often do neither very well).

Wildstrom recently tested several new models based on a new approach – putting a microspeaker inside the ear canal, as a hearing aid does. The new models also provide sound isolation, that is, blocking external noise.

He gives the new models by Etymotic Research and Shure thumbs up, noting that even the least expensive Shure E3c (recommended price $99) delivers "top-notch" sound.

Read Wildstrom's Business Week review of new ear buds, or visit the companies Etymotic and Shure