The Headwave Tag has been created by Sophie Willborn. The idea was born when she became frustrated with having to wear earphones under the helmet when she went out biking. We can totally relate to this, you have to cater to the awkward cable and the earbud getting dislodged is just pure annoyance. Not to mention, it isn’t that comfortable either.
She set about to come up with a solution to this problem and the end result is that she decided to take the earphones out of the equation altogether. The Tag doesn’t sport any cables or interior installations for that matter and this translates into a helmet that fits perfectly and isn’t uncomfortable. Following two years of development, we finally have the finalized product.
The development phase comprised of many prototypes with varying sizes of batteries and connectors along with the positioning of buttons according to Willborn. The changes that have been made over the course of development have also resulted in the addition of an adjustable curvature in order to enable the device to connect to various kinds of helmets. The user interface has been brought down to a single button.
All that the users need to do is to connect the Tag with their phone or music player using Bluetooth 4.1. How does the gadget work? It makes use of transduction and fills the inside of the helmet with sound. Willborn says, “You can imagine Tag as a strong loudspeaker without any membrane. Tag uses the helmet itself as a membrane to create the sound.” The end result is a total immersive experience with the vibrations being able to impart amazing bass tones.
It is made of thermoplastic polyurethane and measures in at 4.8×2.4in. It extends only 2cm out from the helmet and can survive speeds of up to 300km/h. It is water and shockproof and features a 600mAh li-ion battery that can last for 6-8 hours and is charged via USB port.
It was launched in the start of January and can be ordered at a price of $324.
