Found: Fuser Mixes Ambient Sounds with Your Music for Safer Headphone Use

In many parts of the world cycling with headphones is, quite rightly, against the law.

There seems to be lots of hard lines drawn in this community with zero tolerance for those different from us. I use headphones. Nothing you say will change my stance; nothing you say impacts me. I love the outdoors. I love music. Why must people on here piss on everything that doesn’t suit their own specific personal desire? Don’t bother replying to me directly, I can’t here you—I have BOTH earbuds in and have the volume cranked.

Sorry but I may have to break from tradition and say something half intelligent, this technology will not predict loud traffic noise such as somebody beeping their horn or a car screeching to a halt. It cant as predictive technology does not exist as of yet that can predict unlikely events. Noise cancelling software works with predictive noise such as airplane engine noise.
There will be a time lag between the mic detecting the sound and the software “blending” it with the players’ music. What the lag is would depend on a number of factors (direction, power, frequency) but I would rather ride with the music low or one bud removed than chance hearing something dangerous that has a time lag.

Waste of money. Just use your regular earbuds and turn down the music if you wanna hear the streets.

Riding safely with earphones has been solved for some time now. The solution is this: don’t ride with sound-isolating earphones (active or passive) and keep the volume at a level such that you can hear what’s going on around you.

Yes, riding safely with earphones has been solved for a long time now: you don’t stick in them in yours and you don’t play music through them. Simple.

Where’s the mic? Think about it – your ears hear in stereo and give you an idea of the direction that potential dangers are coming from. If the mic is mono and placed in the wrong place you will have no idea where the sound is emanating from.

Quote:
James S – 08/14/13 – 12:29pm

Good point.

Perhaps a set of headphones designed specifically with microphones on both sides of the earpieces would be the solution. That way you are getting the sounds from the outside world from “ear level” and not from a mic that’s clipped on to your waist or some other location.

Otherwise it’s a neat idea.