Laser-filled earbuds flash to music, and maybe your steps and heartbeat too
You'll definitely look like a future-forward partier with these glowing green, red or blue earbud cords draped around you. But is the price worth it?
Music and lasers have long gone together -- but the combination is found more often at festivals and clubs than in your own personal space. A new set of earbud headphones now making a run on Kickstarter brings the dazzle of laser light right into the cords that dangle around your neck, and they beat in conjunction with the music you're playing. They'll also beat according to your movements or heartbeat if the crowd-funding campaign is successful.
The cords of the Glow headphones are made from Corning's Fibrance material, which conducts laser light through flexible glass fibers. That light will blink on and off in accordance with whatever music you're playing on your device. If the makers of Glow are successful in reaching their stretch goals, the cords will also beat in accordance with your steps -- thanks to a built-in accelerometer -- and with your heartbeat, which will be read by a sensor inside the earbuds themselves.
The earbud cords also hold a few extra goodies. There's an inline microphone and a button where the two cables from each ear meet, allowing you to take and end calls with a single push. There's also another five-way controller lower down on the cord that allows you to control your music and activate other smartphone features like clicking your camera's shutter or activating voice-to-text functionality. This is handy for searching the web or responding to texts.
That all being said, the main attraction of the earbuds is the cool glowing cord and for that, the asking price of $149 (about £98, AU$186) seems really steep -- especially since they won't include the accelerometer function unless the makers meet their stretch goal of $750,000, or the heart rate function unless they get $1 million. Considering that the initial goal is only $100,000, those both seem like stretches indeed. On top of that, remember that these are untested headphone makers, so trusting that the sound quality will be any good requires a leap of faith.
Still, that hasn't stopped people from pledging their cash, proving that sizzle can sometimes sell as well as substance. So far the project has raised over $135,000 and still has 43 days to go.
If you want to bling up your 'buds, you can snag a pair in red, green or blue for $149, or you can get three pairs for $399 (about £262, AU$499). The Glow headphones are expected to ship in July of this year and can be delivered world-wide.