Listening to music in public can often be dangerous, especially when it comes to things like crossing roads and other things where your ears could save your life.

One new product, however, ensures that you don't have to go without music completely during these times. The device is called Batband, and it offers an ears-free listening experience.

The device essentially works through bone conduction, with transistors emitting sound waves that are captured by the user's inner ear. The sound waves are basically vibrations that are transmitted at a frequency that can be carried through the user's skull to the inner ear. This frees up the "outer-ear" to listen to sounds around the user. According to the Kickstarter campaign for the device, this doesn't compromise on comfort or audio quality.

While there have certainly been devices that use bone conduction to transmit music before, the company hails the Batband as the first high-fidelity bone conduction headphones. The device basically wraps around the back of the user's head, and there is an end-piece above each ear. The Batband is controlled via a swiping pad as well as a button.

The headphones also have a built-in microphone in case the user gets a phone call while listening to music, and the phone can be answered through the controls on the band itself.

The company behind the new device, called StudioBananaThings, was hoping to make $150,000 toward funding, however, at the time of this writing, the Kickstarter sits at a pretty big $221,702.

Those interested in buying the device can pledge $149 for their device, with cheaper specials being sold out on the Kickstarter page. Pledges range up to $1,300, which gets the user 10 Batbands.

Via: Slash Gear