How I designed the EAR during lunch...

When we initially sat down to discuss innovative ideas to enhance the way people use personal headsets it wasn’t hard to visualize people walking around with Beats headsets on blast.  When I say blast I am talking about a volume that makes your head thump at the drop of each beat.  Just a few days ago I passed by a guy wearing headsets and he literally stopped right in front of me while I was on the phone.  The music coming from his headset was so loud that my caller could hear the music.  I can only imagine how hard it would have to be for this guy to hear any and everything around him.  Safety is always a priority (well, at least it should be).  So, I had some discussions with some fellow engineers about how we could design around this craziness.  I was specifically asked if I could come up with an idea for developing a solution that could actually interrupt music so that listeners could hear emergency vehicles.  I am up for the challenge, so of course I said I could.  Well, prototyping this one was fun while experimenting with environmental noise and all that fun stuff.

3/4 Cutout Image of the Emergency Audio Responder (EAR)

All aspects of design require a sense of user friendliness.  In order to accomplish this, my design needed to have a small form factor, light weight, and expandability.  I needed to consider a shielded cover to allow wireless communication for the audible sensors and of course a simple input and output connector to interface between your music device and your headset.  A good design considering expandability should also have expandable and removable circuit card slots.  I felt the removable circuit card slots were essential to retain the enclosure while upgrading the technology as needed.  So, here is the initial design approach to the Emergency Audio Responder (EAR) before it was formally developed into its current design.  Feel free to visit my site to see how this design evolved.

For more information about design approaches, engineering, or specifically this design solution, feel free to reach out to me <contact me>

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