Sony pumps tunes through the listener's body

BOFFINS AT SONY have worked out a way of connecting headphones to music players without using wires, or fiddly wi-fi connections.

According to New Scientist, the Sony boffs wondered if there was any way they could use that 12 stone of unsightly fat which connects users's ears to their feet.

Sure enough, they found that by passing the signal through a user's body they could connect them to their headphones without the problems of Bluetooth static or interference from other radio gear.

It seems the listener's body becomes a capacitor that carries a tiny electrostatic charge. If a player sends a fluctuating signal to a conductive cloth pad it slightly charges the wearer's body.

A pair of conductive ear pads in the headphones can pick-up the signal and convert it into sound.

Apparently there is no nasty tingling effect and the high frequency signal carry data at 48 kilobytes per second, which is good enough for a music player, Sony thinks.

You can read the patent here.