Hearables

The term was introduced in April 2014 simultaneously by Apple in the context of the company's acquisition of Beats Electronics and product designer and wireless application specialist Nick Hunn in a blogpost for a wearable technologies internet platform.

The news agency Reuters in its "Journalism media and technology predictions 2015" ranked voice-driven virtual assistants as an important field of innovation, including voice recognition software like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Echo,[2] or Me-OS on Vinci headphones.

Vinci smart headphones, announced in 2016,[5] incorporated a dual-core CPU, local storage, Wi-Fi, and 3G connectivity that allow users to use without a phone.

At the same time acoustic warning signals – for example in case of an otherwise unnoticed medical crisis – are, as experiments have shown, more effective and immediate than visual indicators.

[19][20][1] However, the design details known as of today hint at „Minuscule“ being deployed as Bluetooth headphones and as such the earbuds will not completely comply with the definition of hearables in a broader sense.

Apart from "Earin" and "Ownphones," the Munich-based technology company Bragi[23] has advertised developments towards truly wireless smart earphones according to different publications such as Wired Magazine (10/2014),[24] the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf,[25] and The Huffington Post.

[28] "The Dash", which according to public company announcements will reach start of production in autumn 2015, is projected to enable wearers to listen to music while tracking physical activity (speed, time, distance, cadence, elevation gain, etc.)

[30] Already in autumn 2014 "FreeWavz"[31] was announced, a Bluetooth triggered headset developed by Florida-based ENT physician and fitness enthusiast Dr. Eric Hensen.

[32] The earpieces can be controlled independently and give acoustic updates on heart rate, oxygen saturation, calories burned, distance, speed and duration.

In May 2014 the British daily newspaper The Guardian reported on an information leak claiming that Apple Inc. had recently started to break into the wearables market by equipping their standard headphones with health monitoring features.

They are rumoured to have partnered with Google to develop custom shaped hearable for measuring pulse oxygenation, EEG, heart rate and for Brain computer interface.

It is the first of kind that combines a HiFi music player, a 32G local storage, voice recognition, activity tracking and biometric sensors (like heart rate).