h a l f b a k e r y
Fewer ducks than estimates indicate.
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The crowd of lightly dressed runners shook and shivered for warmth in the cold October air, awaiting the start of the city's marathon.
You were there too. Confident in your physical preparation, as well as the running music you downloaded onto your MP3 in the days before the race.
The gun finally
went off, and that was the last external sound you heard as you hit play and set your feet in motion to Bob Seger's ''Against the Wind'.
That was until the jostling of your running removed your ear buds from your ears and you found that you were not still running, but trying to stick the darn things back into your head.
If it wasn't for a friendly runner wearing the strangest t-shirt with half a loaf of bread on it, who gave you a pair of Inflatable Earbuds, you may have never crossed the finish line four hours later listening to Jackson Browne's 'Running on Empty'.
After the race, a closer inspection revealed that the earbuds were quite normal with the exception of the tiny bladders at key locations fitted to the tiniest pump, to squeeze snuggly to the architecture of your ear canal.
partially baked
http://www.headphon.../etymotic-er-4p.php
The black foam ear inserts are similar to what you describe. You squinch them down before putting them in your ear, and they expand once in the ear canal. [yppiz, Feb 21 2006]
Turbosound's effort
http://www.dv247.com/invt/22850
I use these. They're good, but they're not inflatable :( [wagster, Feb 22 2006]
[link]
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I had to stop yesterday when I was out running to empty
my other tiny bladder.... does this mean that in future
instead of stopping, I will be able to simply tilt my head
to the one side when the need arises? + |
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I think this would increase the pressure inside the external auditory meatus and risk rupturing the eardrums. Also, what happens with changes in atmospheric pressure? Wouldn't it give you earache? |
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I don't know much about the external auditory meatus and the correlation between it and the eardrum , but these will simply expand to fill the space in the outer ear more snugly. Its nowhere near the eardrum. At all. Perhaps the use of "ear canal" is deceiving. As for atmospheric pressure, the volume of air contained within it will not be expansive enough to cause damage. Furthermore, people who are prone to earaches from atmospheric pressure are prone to earaches from atmospheric pressure. This idea doesn't mitigate or enhance that. |
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I think people are voting for comfortable ear thingys & I know that I so want this... |
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I've used sealing earbuds in the past. The sealing mechanism was basically a foam earplug (the ones you roll between your fingers before sticking them deep into your ear canal) with a tiny tube through it. By both improving the seal and reducing the dead volume, the sound quality was tremendously improved, even at much lower volume settings. Even the bass notes were much more expressive. |
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This sounds (no pun intended) like it would do something similar, but in a more comfortable manner. I want a set. [+] |
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Any increased pressure in the external ear is going to increase inward pressure on the eardrum. This is uncomfortable if not painful, and would be at least distracting over a long period of time. It would probably be like having water in your ears. There doesn't have to be much difference in pressure for it to cause discomfort. When i've had blocked up ears due to a cold, it's made a difference moving between rooms, so the question is, how does that pressure difference compare to those outside.
On the other hand, maybe i'm just squeamish about my ears. |
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It should be easy to equalize the difference. This isn't scuba diving to multiple atmospheres, it's more like your ears popping when driving in the mountains, if that. |
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Yes, [rcarty], //ear canal// is misleading. You mean external ear. So these are just earbuds (not ear canal phones) that don't fall out so easily. Works for me. |
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The sound will still be poor relative to external earphones or ear-canal phones, but that's the price of not having to stick things in your ear canal and keeping things small. |
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Right, so obviously i'm just a complete wimp about my ears. |
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