conducting

LAS VEGAS--Music can serve as a great motivator in a long workout at the gym, but it's a universally bad idea to use headphones during outdoor exercises, especially if you live in a big city with traffic and obstructions coming at you from all angles.

For cyclists and runners who still want to jam to a soundtrack, Panasonic introduces the RP-BTGS10 wireless headphones at CES with a unique take on sound transmission, using your cheekbones to deliver audio straight to your head. (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Calling this device an "earphone" is a misnomer, since they actually … Read more

AfterShokz is one of a handful of companies making bone-conduction headphones, launching its brand earlier this year. Unlike conventional headphones and earbuds that use the eardrums to transmit sound, AfterShokz headphones rest in front of your ear and utilize bone-conduction technology to transmit sound through your cheekbones to your inner ear, bypassing your eardrum completely. The technology, originally developed for military personnel, has been around for a while, but AfterShokz and others have turned it into a niche consumer product.

Although the headphones work just fine, audiophiles probably won't be impressed with the sound quality. After all, these are … Read more

There's nothing like hitting the ski lodge for a warm beverage after a few hours on the slopes, but trying to round up the troops can be a pain when you have to dig through your winter layers to find your cell phone and then shout instructions over all the swooshing and ambient noise around you.

If you're sick of dealing with this first-world problem, let us introduce you to the Buhel SpeakGoggle G33. These high-tech goggles connect to your cell phone or smartphone via Bluetooth and feature a bone conduction mic integrated into the frame that translates speech using the vibrations from your nose. The advantage of bone conduction technology is that it blocks outside noise, so you can have a clearer conversation with your friend. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The show floor at CES 2012 looks like a spaceship full of headphones crash-landed onto it, blasting earbuds and DJ headsets into every booth. AfterShokz finds a way to cut through the clutter by bypassing the ears completely.

AfterShokz sit over the back of your head and hook over your ears. The pads touch at the back of your cheekbones and use bone conduction technology to deliver the sound.

I already tested out Yurbuds, rubbery earbuds designed for athletes. The AfterShokz are also designed for athletes, particularly runners.… Read more

The Geek Squad might not like this development, but we're excited about it. Engineers at the University of Illinois have developed a self-healing system for electronics that they say can restore conductivity to failed circuitry in "mere microseconds."

Today's ever-denser chips face more reliability problems due to the increasingly sophisticated demands on electronic devices. When one circuit within an integrated chip fails, the whole chip, and even the whole device (and your pressing deadline, of course) can go down with it.

"In a multilayer integrated circuit, there's no opening it up," Nancy Sottos, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement. "Normally you just replace the whole chip. It's true for a battery too. You can't pull a battery apart and try to find the source of the failure."

To get around the need for external intervention and diagnostics (which may not be readily available for spacecraft or defense-based aircraft, for example), the researchers adapted a previous technique they'd developed for self-healing polymer materials.

They placed tiny microcapsules (as small as 10 microns in diameter) filled with liquid metal on top of a gold line functioning as a circuit. When the circuit cracks, the microcapsules break open, releasing the liquid gallium-indium alloy into the gap and restoring electrical flow--up to 99 percent in most cases. The liquid does its bidding in less time than it takes to blink. … Read more

Researchers at Stanford are developing new sensors so flexible and pressure-sensitive that they could be used to make touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs, pressure-sensitive badges, and more.

By incorporating a transparent film of carbon nano-springs, the sensor "can register pressure ranging from a firm pinch between your thumb and forefinger to twice the pressure exerted by an elephant standing on one foot," says postdoctoral researcher Darren Lipomi, co-author of a paper published October 23 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. "None of it causes any permanent deformation."

The team built those nano-springs by airbrushing nanotubes (which are in liquid … Read more

This week, Donald and Eric explore the idea of hearing with your mouth, seeing in 12 dimensions, and shooting lightening with a wave of your arm. Yes, it's wizard tech week, apparently. To that end, we show off an illuminated staff that can divine the strength of your Wi-Fi signal and a DIY project for all you pinball wizards out there.

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A trade group for the mobile-phone industry is calling for new privacy guidelines to help address consumer complaints over how and what information is gathered through mobile apps.

Made up of mobile advertisers, publishers, and media companies, the Mobile Marketing Association said yesterday that it's working on a new set of privacy guidelines to supplement its current Global Code of Conduct. Created in 2008, the Code of Conduct established that mobile marketers must ensure that consumers can opt in and out of ads and that information gathered through ads be used responsibly.

But with ongoing concerns about online privacy, … Read more