Headphone News

Though this headset is more medical device than headphone, it uses technology that could one day remove the battery dependency for active noise cancellation or wireless connectivity. What the headset does is monitor brainwave activity, which it can then wirelessly transfer to a nearby computer. It's able to do this without a battery.

Witchcraft? Probably. It harnesses energy through two methods: solar power and thermoelectrics. The solar panels are pretty obvious to see, and relatively old hat in terms of innovation. The main source of energy, however, requires your body heat, which is interesting and awesome. Basically, it uses thermoelectric materials that depend on your head being hot and the air around you being less hot. What if it's a hot day? That's where the solar panels come in to pick up the slack. If you're sitting inside a sweltering cave, you're out of luck, so try to avoid sweltering caves while wearing this headset.

The applications of this headset are myriad and interesting, such as your car being able to tell how sleepy you are, or monitoring seizure patients around the clock. Obviously, this is all leading up to machines being controlled by thought, which means it's officially THE FUTURE.

Granted, these headphones look ugly, and are only capable of consistently harnessing one millivolt of energy through this method, but with some tweaking we might see similar technology cropping up in headphones. Perhaps some day soon, your entire library of La Bouche hits will just be a thought away.