If you bike to work, you might find yourself wishing for a way to listen to tunes during your commute. But biking requires you to be totally aware of your surroundings—of drivers on the road, of people getting out of the cars, of the other bicyclists next to you, and on and on. There's almost no good reason to wear earbuds to listen to music while biking. But Gemma Roper, an art student from the Royal College of Art, has designed a pair of headphones to avoid all that—they fit onto your helmet and transmit sound directly into your inner ear through your cheekbone.
The Safe + Sound headphones—which also work as a standalone, over-the-ear headphones when they're not fastened onto your helmet, and actually look super dope—work using bone conduction technology. The modules stay on your helmet strap, so it works with almost any model of bike helmets. The effect, according to Roper, is that you can listen to music without being totally detached from the sounds around you.
Fast Company describes it as "'hearing' music softly playing directly in your brain," while your ears are free to listen for impending doom (read: buses). And that's the best of both worlds, isn't it? Still, please proceed with caution before doing anything besides giving the road your full attention while biking. Otherwise, you might hit Nicole Kidman.
[via Fast Company]
