What are Earbuds?

You might be safe in the wisdom that I bring the top headset posts, a number of them are my own several of which are curated by me, if i choose to use someone elses articles it’s because it’s relevant to my readership, so feel confident that you simply are reading the best from my industry.

Earbuds are headphones, typically made out of a hard plastic material, that fit inside the ear, just outside of the ear canal. These aren’t the same thing as ear canal headphones, which have a rubber tip and seal within a listener’s ear canal.

Several portable music devices, like mp3s and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), come with earbuds when the device is purchased. Earbuds are a less expensive alternative to ear canal headphones or other listening devices. Consumers tend to purchase earbuds for their convenience, as they are easier to carry around than other headphones because of their small size.

This style of headphone also tends to be more inexpensive than other kinds, like ear canal headphones, circumaural headphones that fit outside the ears, or the supra-aural headphones that have pads that are placed on top of the ears, rather than around or inside them. Circumaural headphones are typically used in recording studios and supra-aural headphones can still be purchased at some stores, though these kinds of devices have given way to headphones that fit within the ear.

Because of the design of earbuds, there can be a few drawbacks to owning them as opposed to owning another style of headphone. First, the rigid design of earbuds can sometimes make it difficult for them to fit comfortably inside a listener’s ear. If they’re too large or too small, they can either slip out of the ear or won’t fit inside it at all. Another problem reported by consumers is that because earbuds don’t seal the ear canal, the sound quality is muddled through other ambient noises.

Essentially, most earbuds work the same as other headphones and the set-up is relatively simple. Wires move up from the electronic device that is putting out sound, such as an mp3 player. These wires connect to a voice coil. The coil is attached to a cone, which is flexible and plastic. A magnet is attached to the back of the earbuds. When sound passes up through the wires and to the magnet, the voice coil becomes electromagnetic and moves up and down with the sound. The cone then pushes the sound out through the earbud and into the listener’s ear.

When listening to earbuds or any other type of headphones, physicians recommend to keep the volume at a reasonable level, as research had proven that prolonged exposure to high noise levels can lead to permanent hearing loss. Prolonged listening to loud noises, including music, puts unnecessary stress on the hairs in the cochlea. This causes permanent damage to the hairs and can eventually lead to hearing loss.

Programmer Facing Paralysis Develops Revolutionary New Software

38-year-old computer programmer Gal Sont is developing revolutionary new software to aid disabled people in communication, even as he faces paralysis himself.

Sont suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS – alternately known as ‘Lou Gehrig’s  Disease’), which he was first diagnosed with in 2009.

Due to this disease, the neurons that govern voluntary movement (located in the brain and spinal cord) are slowly dying out, which means that Gal is likely to eventually suffer from ‘locked-in syndrome’, a cruel affliction wherein the mind is aware and conscious, but the body is completely unable to move or speak (usually only the eyes are voluntarily controlled).

Tragically, there is no known cure for this condition.

When Sont (who, even today, can only stand when aided – and only for a few seconds at a time) met other people suffering with similar disabilities, he found that they were increasingly resorting to expensive (and often-inefficient) computer setups in order to help them better communicate with the outside world.

“I came to realize that these people first of all don’t understand the potential, what technology can do for them, they use all kinds of different equipment which was very expensive, and as I know technology I didn’t understand why they were so expensive”, Sont told BBC News earlier this week.

“So I decided to build the best and fastest on-screen keyboard, then when combined with the camera, it gives you a very cheap and very good communication solution… accessible for all people, not only the rich.”

Sont and his best friend Dan Russ are business partners in the Las Vegas, Nevada, USA-based start-up company Click2Speak, which aims to create a fast, efficient and accurate on-screen keyboard (created by Sont –using only his eyes) in order to aid people with physical disabilities. The driving force behind the invention is to create an affordable product that is better than anything else available right now.

Click2Speak makes use of an ingenious eye-tracking camera that allows the user to control the cursor on a screen, or click buttons on a virtual keyboard, simply by looking at them. Clicks can be made using a foot pedal, or by holding one’s gaze on a specific part of the screen. Gal’s computer makes full use of his Click2Speak software and he is able to control his entire desktop (including email, Skype, video games and, perhaps most importantly, the creation of code – the way in which he makes his living) using only his eyes.

Click2Speak is fully integrated with the SwiftKey Smartphone app, which is timesaving software that creates complete suggestions for half-typed words, based on the user’s previous word use. Essentially, the software grows easier to use the more it is utilized and this is a major part of Click2Speak’s design.

As his illness progresses, Sont will be using his own software more and more to communicate with his family, friends and business colleagues.

Gal Sont was born in Israel in 1976 and was fascinated by computers since getting his first Commodore 64 aged 8. He married his school sweetheart, with whom he has two daughters and has subsequently spent 20 years working as a computer programmer. He is also a big sci-fi/fantasy fan and he used to enjoy outdoor activities such as kite surfing, motor biking and riding roller coasters.

By nature a proud man, Gal cherishes his independence and it is this desire to remain self-sufficient that has motivated him to create such an affordable software option for others facing similar hardships.

“I never asked for help from anyone my whole life, it was my wife and I against the world, but now I need help and assistance, and it’s not too much fun to ask all the time for others to help you (…) If you can buy a communication device by yourself without begging others to help, this is also very, very good. So I hope the people out there who hear about our software and the keyboard, will be able to use it, save money and time, and live their life.” He says.

It is clear that Sont’s miraculous mind will prove to be a life preserver, not only for himself, but also for thousands of others around the world.

“Your communication is the basis of everything, to tell someone you love them, to ask for something to drink, it is the basic need of every one of us: to communicate with my family and friends and tell them all that I need, in words. So communicating is very important, and if I can do it faster and more efficient, you know, I’ve won the world.”

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28041743

http://www.click2speak.net/category/our-journey

IED blast in Afghanistan inspires ex-Green Beret to reinvent two-way radio

When we found this informative article we were so pleased, having hunted for over a year for this, discovering it on this blog was an thrilling day for me.

U.S. Army Special Forces Sgt. Tom Katis was headed through the mountains from Asadabad to Jalalabad in Northeastern Afghanistan to catch a plane out of the country for a week of leave in January 2003 when 70 pounds of plastic explosives buried in the road detonated directly under the lead vehicle in his convoy, setting off an ambush.

Shooting erupted from the reeds along the Kunar River, and Katis found his crew switching among numerous radio channels to call in air support and a medical helicopter for two wounded soldiers, as well as to update his commander and coordinate with nearby units.

“I had to take guys off team frequencies to monitor empty traffic. All of a sudden, the team was not on the same frequency,” said Katis. “We all had radios that cost $15,000 each, and we’re yelling at each other.”

At that moment, Katis decided that even when operating as designed, radios were too difficult to use in combat. Live-only microphones caused missed connections. Choices had to be made quickly between satellite and line-of-sight systems.

That trauma was the kernel for Voxer, a San Francisco-based “push-to-talk” smartphone application developer that Katis co-founded in 2007 and hopes will take a big chunk of the multi-billion-dollar two-way radio hardware and services industry.

After finishing his second Army tour in 2003, Katis immediately co-founded a private security firm called Triple Canopy that has grown to 8,000 employees by catering to military, government and corporate customers around the world.

The radio idea stuck with Katis, however, who had worked a stint at a startup in Silicon Valley from 1999 to 2001.

“The first thing that was obvious was that everything needed to go on the Internet,” said Katis, a graduate of Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics and economics who interrupted his business career to re-enroll in the military after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

At Triple Canopy, Katis in 2004 met Matt Ranney, who became Voxer’s co-founder and CTO. What they and early Voxer employees later created was an Internet-based hybrid between a walkie-talkie and a group messaging application that enables users to talk live or send voice, text and photo messages that can be retrieved at will, all while displaying individual users’ locations. Venture investors to date have funded their efforts with $30 million.

It’s a deceptively simple system, according to Gartner, but Voxer has received 126 patents around the world to protect its inventions, which Katis says provide a platform for significantly improving communications in the private sector and government.

In May 2011, Voxer released a free version of its app and, though it was initially slow to catch on, it exploded to nearly 70 million users by 2012.

At that point Voxer had to choose whether to focus on the consumer app and generate money through advertising or some other vehicle — a vision that many other entrepreneurs were chasing — or try to build a communications product that businesses and governments would be willing to buy. For Katis and his cohorts, the choice was clear.

“A free consumer app was not going to solve the problems we want to solve,” said Katis in an interview in Voxer’s San Francisco headquarters in the historic Phelan Building on Market Street. “I think I can build a much bigger company than that. This is a hundred-billion-dollar industry that I think we can go and take a very meaningful piece of.”

Katis still loves and intends to keep the free app, but Voxer turned its attentions to building more sophisticated features, including encryption, a web-browser-based version for administrators, an installed appliance that companies or government agencies (think three letters) can run themselves and a function that mimics the way two-way radios squawk out transmissions in real-time.

Voxer launched a roughly $10-a-month-per-user business version in June 2013 and, while Katis says the first year was very much a learning process concerning how to make corporate sales, the company just scored its biggest customer yet, the North American division of a major international automobile manufacturer, the identity of which it cannot yet make public. In addition, Roto-Rooter, the national plumbing repair business, in April started to roll Voxer out to about 900 people, a quarter of its field staff, and Voxer has trials underway with various U.S. agencies.

Most of the sales to date have been to companies that asked to upgrade from the free app, said Katis, adding that the company is now hiring in sales and marketing.

One inbound customer was Chris Marino, owner of Xtreme Snow Pros, a snow removal service in Mahwah, N.J., who used the business version last winter for the first time after testing out many different two-way radio systems. Most of the other systems required hardware purchases were more expensive and less versatile, he said.

Marino’s staff balloons during snow season from five to 70 employees with seasonal help, and Voxer lets him communicate with each one individually or all at once from his desk.

“Voxer Business was an incredible asset to us,” Marino said. “It’s a truly great product.”

 

Who Uses a Spy Earpiece?

British comedian Jack Dee probably said it best, “Men like to use drills because secretly, we think they’re guns”. Tools just bring out our inner 007.

He’s right. Men like gadgets for the same reason. We can’t deny it, there’s just something unassailably cool about a tool that you can use, but that no one else knows about.

Whether you’re prancing around your house pointing a Black & Decker at imaginary henchmen, or fondly imagining that your fountain pen doubles as some sort of deadly offensive weapon, its OK to admit that you like the idea of gadgets.

If you’re reading this and nodding, then you are almost certainly a man (or else, a bit of a Tomboy, which is fine too). In which case, you probably found this article whilst searching for a ‘spy earpiece’ online. Ergo, the sort of person who buys this is, well, someone just like you.

If, however, you clicked this page because you want to know what sort of person uses such a device (or indeed, what, if any, its practical applications are), then you’ve come to the right place, ma’am.

Its not all James Bond wannabes, you know.

Teaching professionals cunningly utilize spy earpieces to receive information in real time as they go through vast amounts of information in front of a class. They also employ such gadgets when giving lengthy and complex presentations to superiors or potential students. This goes double (or even triple) for public speakers.

Amazingly, the time spent preparing a reliable body of information and then having an accomplice drip feed the correct answers to you via the earpiece would probably be better spent actually learning the material in the first place. However, you can also use spy earpieces in presentations in much the same way that businesspeople do.

Security personnel will also use spy earpieces, as surprising as that may be to read. Often, the security professional is used as a deterrent; large, imposing men and women are geared up with walkie-talkies and sharp suits or black uniforms in order to encourage would-be troublemakers to think twice. However, it is also common for security guards to operate in plain clothes, keeping an eye on potential situations discreetly and quietly. For this, they use a spy earpiece. For the same reasons, even undercover police have been known to employ spy earpieces.

So, the earpiece appeals to more than just the gadget-crazed would-be 007. Spy earpieces are used by a broad cross-section of the community, not just by men with a little too much time on their hands!

Finding a Spy earpiece can be a difficult task, the website EarpieceOnline.co.uk is one of the best places to get one.

What Is a Couplant?

Wow. The new earpiece is magnificent. I mean it’s just so gorgeous and so sophisticated. I pity people who grew up without the headset.

A couplant is a material that serves as a medium for the transmission of sound waves. Usually, couplant gel is a form of water-based substance, or a paste composed of oils or grease-like chemicals. It is placed in physical contact with a transducer that receives audio signals in the air and then coverts them to electrical impulses for transmission. Microphones and sound test equipment use couplant gel or dry couplants to facilitate this.

Ultrasonic testing of materials can also employ complete immersion of the transducer in a couplant-like water, or just a thin film of glycerin or oil between the transducer and medium being studied. Acoustic couplant is important for ultrasonic testing because air is a fairly poor medium for the transmission of sound waves in general as compared to solids. The level of energy that ultrasonic frequencies carry falls off dramatically when transmitted through air, so these materials are meant to minimize this loss.

Many conventional substances can be used as a couplant, including motor oil or even hair gel. This is because even a very thin layer of air between a transducer and sound specimen will have strong attenuation effects, and nearly any solid placed between them will reduce this. Electrical components can generate a lot of heat, however, so specially formulated couplants are designed to accommodate this.

Ultrasonic couplants in the nuclear and medical equipment industry go a step further by requiring materials that are low in halogen or sulfur compounds at less than 50 parts per million (ppm). Propylene glycol, the same material used in automotive antifreeze, is another specialty compound used. It is chemically nonreactive and can withstand temperatures of 200° Fahrenheit (90° Celsius) before undergoing thermal breakdown. Optical couplant fills another unique need. Often referred to as index matching gel, it is used in the splicing of fiber optic cable to minimize variations in the index of refraction that occur where the fibers meet, which can degrade signal transmission.

The main properties looked for in a good couplant material are its acoustic properties, corrosion inhibition, and surface wetting so that it binds well. The length of time it stays wet, known as drying time, is also important, as well as the temperature levels it can endure and its uniformity. A unique aspect of some couplant gel is that it contains a fluorescent tracer dye that glows in the ultraviolet band, which is used to monitor coverage levels.

 

WW1-Era Shipwrecks To Receive Protection

July 28^th 1914 was a day that changed the world forever.

A global war was declared that would last for four long, bloody years and would cost Humanity millions of lives. Although the images of the gruelling, inhuman trench warfare that was waged in France are the perhaps most indelible from the conflict, it should also be remembered that an awful amount of lives were also lost at sea.

Britain alone lost over a thousand vessels from 1914 – 1919, together with about 89,300 sailors and merchant navy personnel. Germany lost hundreds of warships, as well as about 35,000 sailors. In addition, civilians were also caught in the ocean-going crossfire, as a German submarine sank the liner Lusitania in 1915, killing almost 2000 people in the process.

As we approach the centenary of the First World War, the seafloors are littered with the stark, skeletal remains of vessels leftover from this conflict. In recent years, however, these ruined ships have come under an increased level of threat from salvage teams, looters and profiteers, many of whom are intent on destroying the wrecks outright.

Shipwrecks such as those left over from the First World War, are a target for two main reasons. Firstly, they can be commercially exploited for scrap metals (and other artefacts) and secondly, fishing trawlers dredging the ocean depths in search of deep-sea fish can impact the ships, destroying them altogether.

In 2011 alone, three British cruisers, the final resting place of about 1,500 sailors altogether, were completely destroyed because copper and bronze had reached sufficiently high prices as to make such destructive salvage exercises profitable.

However, because the 100^th anniversary of World War One begins this year, more and more of these ships will be protected by Unesco’s 2001 ‘Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage’, an agreement that extends International protection to shipwrecks over 100 years old.

Many people worry that these laws will prove difficult to enforce, however. Others still are worried that this move will increase the destruction of shipwrecks from more recent times, in particular, vessels from World War Two (1939 – 1945), before they come under Unesco’s protection.

Today, historians are attempting to use the centenary of the First World War as a way to educate people about the history and legacy of the conflict, as well as to demonstrate the cultural and historical importance of these undersea war graves. Many, including this writer, feel that such sites are deserving of our respect and reverence.

Shipwrecks also provide a very good habitat for local marine life and can even form the basis for coral reefs (if left undisturbed for long enough). These vessels are also studied for scientific interest, with experiments carried out on everything from metal erosion to marine biology.

At the time of writing, the British Government has failed to sign the convention.

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28056244

What Is Audio Surveillance?

Well ladies and gentlemen, i have one more brilliant earpiece piece to read, i know, you do not need to thank me all, just add a social like to the short article to show your appreciation.

Audio surveillance is the act of listening to third-party conversations and recording them. This technique is frequently used by law enforcement, private detectives and government spy agencies. Most audio surveillance consists of either bugging a room, wearing a wire, tapping a phone or distance listening. Each provides distinct advantages and disadvantages, depending on the situation.

Wiretapping is one of the most common and simple form of audio surveillance. This is preferred because it is highly inconspicuous and allows for two sides of a conversation to be clearly recorded. Small audio devices, commonly called bugs, are attached to the internal circuitry of a telephone to pick up a conversation. A signal is wirelessly transmitted to another device that records the conversation. The drawback of this method is getting access to a subject’s telephone to properly wiretap it.

A room microphone is another audio surveillance technique that often is utilized. This involves planting a wireless microphone in a room to pick up conversations. Disguised room microphones are available to look like pens, clocks, stuffed animals and a variety of other covert forms. This microphone sends a signal to a receiver, just like a wiretap does, and the signal can be directly recorded. The disadvantage here is access to some rooms and getting only one side of a phone conversation if it takes place in that room.

Concealable transmitters known as body wires are well-known devices that have been featured in many television shows and movies. A small microphone and transmitting device are worn under the clothes of a person in order to send a signal back to a receiver and record a conversation. This allows the person wearing the wire to ask questions and get specific details that simply listening to other people’s conversations could not provide. The disadvantage of this method is getting access to the person needed to be recorded and also concealing the microphone in a way that hides it but allows for clear recording.

Long-distance microphones are another covert means of audio surveillance. A parabolic microphone, often called a shotgun microphone because of its long shape, has a powerful ability to pick up conversations up to 300 feet (91.4 m) away. Its main disadvantage is its high sensitivity. It can pick up other noises and cannot function if obstructions, such as trees and automobiles, are between the microphone and the conversation.

Russian Officials Brand The Sims 4 as ‘Harmful to Children’

Russia has come under fire from both gamers and the global LGTB community for its decision to restrict sales of Electronic Arts game ‘The Sims 4’ to 18+ gamers.

EA have claimed that this 18+ rating is due to the game’s depiction of same-sex relationships, images of which are deemed by Russian law as being “harmful to children”.

The Sims, in any incarnation, centres on the lives of a group of virtual characters. Players must ensure that the characters are fed, enjoy gainful employment, have somewhere to live (preferably with adequate toilet facilities) and are generally happy in their lives.

There are very few mission-based objectives within The Sims. In fact, it is intended as a virtual depiction (some may say satire) of modern life. To this end, relationships play a part in the game, although characters are neither explicitly heterosexual nor homosexual, these are largely choices made on the part of the player. Relationships can either be brief flirtations, casual flings or monogamous, steady partnerships; it is entirely up to the gamer.

Depictions of sex (called ‘woohoo’) within the game take place under sheets, or in other private places. Players can tell that something is going on, but one would be hard pushed to guess that it was sex without some prior erm…Woohoo experience.

In 2010, Russia passed a law known as 436-FZ, which was created, ostensibly, to protect children from harmful content. The law gives Russian officials the right to censor anything that may elicit “fear, horror, or panic in young children”. It sounds fair enough, except when you try to envision any child, no matter how sensitive, being rendered ‘fearful, horrified or panicky’ at the sight of two, essentially genderless, computer sprites exchanging, essentially nothing, under a duvet.

For the record, Sims cannot take illegal drugs or self harm in any way (with the possible exception of being up all night woohoo-ing and then falling asleep at work and being fired, which I don’t think qualifies), so it is hard to imagine why else the game could have garnered such a severe age restriction.

Oh wait; I forgot to mention that in 2013, Russian authorities amended 436-FZ so that it prohibits the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships”. Now there’s an ill-fitting definition if ever there was one.

Many studies/groups (such as America’s TREVOR project) maintain that media-enforced pressure to conform to heterosexual norms can cause depression, anxiety and even suicide among LGBT youths, essentially proving that only showing one type of romantic relationship can actually be harmful to young viewers. On the flipside, as far as I know, there is no evidence to suggest that seeing a same-sex partnership in a video game will cause an otherwise heterosexual gamer to become a homosexual and even if there was, how exactly would they be being harmed by this unlikely metamorphosis?

Critics maintain that this move reflects little more than personal prejudice in the guise of child protection. Who’s ‘fear, horror and/or panic’ are Russia really preventing here?

In the rest of the world, The Sims series has either been rated at 10+ or 13+ (mainly because of all the woohoo, I suppose). Electronic Arts was voted as being one of the best places to work for LGBT individuals by the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) in 2012, it got a score of 100%.

One has to wonder what score the Russian government would get.

SOURCE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27374539

New Yorkers Return $40,000 Found In Second Hand Couch

Every now and then a news story comes along that simultaneously lifts the spirits and restores one’s faith in Humanity. This is one of those stories.

You know how sometimes you find money down the back of your sofa cushions? Well…

Three students in New York City bought a second-hand couch from a charity shop for $20.00 and discovered an astonishing $40,000 in cash (that’s about £24,000, in case you were wondering) tucked away in several envelopes that were nestled between the cushions.

Reese Werkhoven, one of the discoverers of this hidden fortune, said, “The most money I’d ever found in a couch was like fifty cents. Honestly, I’d be ecstatic to find just $5 in a couch,”

After finding $40,000, he must have been positively delirious. In and of itself, that would be an amazing story, but here’s the REALLY amazing part; the three friends actually tracked down the rightful owner of the money and gave it back.

New Yorkers (well, they live in New Paltz, just North of the city, so ‘New Paltzers’ is probably more appropriate), Reese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo found a mysterious name on one of the envelopes and decided to try and return the cash.

“We all agreed that we had to bring the money back to whoever it belonged to…It’s their money, we didn’t earn it” said Ms. Guasti.

When they tracked down the rightful owner of the cash, it turned out to be an elderly woman’s life savings. The woman’s daughter had donated the couch while her mother was in hospital awaiting surgery and was completely unaware that her mother’s life savings were hidden inside it.

The woman (who did not want her identity revealed, for fairly obvious reasons) said that she had been saving the money for many years.

Her husband had given her some funds to put away each week before he sadly died of a heart condition. She had continued to stash the money in his stead and, over several years, had amassed the small fortune discovered by the three friends.

Ms. Guasti said that the old woman believed that the discovery of the money by three honest and caring people was her husband’s way of looking out for her. She said that she felt it was “supposed to happen”.

For their troubles, the widow gave out $1,000 for the friends to share.

I don’t know about you, but that one brought a tear to my eye! See, its not all doom and gloom. Not even students are all bad! 

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-27429911

http://thelittlerebellion.com/index.php/2014/05/new-paltz-students-find-40k-in-a-couch/