Though wireless headphones are not new to the market now, the fact that conventional products usually feature disadvantages such as standby time that is too short, a size that is too large or sound quality that is incomparable to wired headphones, makes it very hard for wireless headphones to take over the market share of wired ones. However, as Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and introduced their AirPods wireless earbuds, the development trend of wireless earbuds has become the focus drawing market attention. In fact, several cord-free hearables not only come without cables, but also with many new functions like heart rate monitoring, step and distance counting, waterproof and touch control. These functions make hearables beyond the product for merely listening to music. This new type of product will expand the market space of wireless earbuds.
Advantages of Wireless Headphones
For those who are used to listening to music through headphones, cables can be quite annoying. For those who like to listen to music while playing sports in particular, this cable stops them from moving freely. Therefore, wireless earbuds become the ideal choice when people want to get rid of cables. Nevertheless, because they are cord-free, wireless earbuds need to employ built-in batteries, and only small batteries with very limited capacity can be put in such a small space. As a result, the operating time of wireless earbuds is shorter and consequently reduces their usefulness.
Wireless Headphones Features
Recently, Bragi launched wireless earbuds The Dash. Besides a music player with superior sound quality, The Dash can continuously play music for 4 hours on a single charge. Meanwhile, The Dash also provides various sensing functions to meet the requirements when playing sports. When you are running, The Dash can provide functions like real-time voice feedback, heart rate monitoring, step and distance counting, duration and calorie calculator. When you are cycling, The Dash supports real-time voice feedback, heart rate monitoring, cadence, and duration. During swimming, The Dash supports detection and calculation such as real-time voice feedback, heart rate monitoring, breath rate, distance and duration.
The Dash is waterproof and supports touch control in order to meet the requirements when playing sports. Users can run functions including volume control, ambient environmental sound access, Bluetooth pairing, music control, activity and tracking control through touch control. Meanwhile, the 4GB built-in data storage that can be used to store music files and the built-in digital MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) microphone from Knowles and the external auditory microphone and Earbone microphone on both earbuds (1 of each) make The Dash very convenient to use. Similar to other wireless earbuds, The Dash connects the cell phone and earbuds through Bluetooth. However, unlike most other products, there is no cord connecting to the left and right units of The Dash and this is one of the reasons Bragi calls The Dash the “truly” wireless earbuds.
Integrated with NFMI Transceiver Technology
The main reason why The Dash can be so lightweight and multi-function relies on NFMI (Near Field Magnetic Induction) transceiver technology and Kinetis K24 microcontroller from NXP. NFMI has been applied to hearing aids and it is still quite unusual to apply it to hearables. The Dash also comes with various built-in sensors to support touch control and different movement-sensing functions, including the high-resolution optical touch sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis magnetometer and dual pulse oximeter sensors.
In order to deliver audio signals from ear to ear without physical cables, Bragi adopted NFMI transceiver technology instead of 2.4GHz RF technology because this solution is small, reliable and consumes minimal energy. Moreover, NFMI technology’s ability to work underwater enables consumers to enjoy The Dash even while swimming. NXP’s NXH2280 NFMI transceiver chip offers features like low power, excellent human body penetration, low absorption by human tissue, high bandwidth, more processing capabilities, small size and increased design flexibility and is the optimized solution for streaming music and audio from ear to ear.
In addition, NXP’s Kinetis K24 is a low power 120MHz ARM Cortex M4F-based microcontroller including 1MB of flash and 256KB SRAM in a WLCSP (Wafer Level Chip Scale Package) to provide a powerful controller with an extremely small footprint which is ideal for space-constrained applications such as hearables. For more details, please kindly visit the data sheet. Currently, the ESC team from Arrow is developing the reference design and is designating professional engineers to support this solution and assist customers’ product development.
관련 상품 참조
Future of Wireless Earbuds
With the rapid development of semiconductor technology, including advances in wafer process and packaging, the chip size is getting smaller and the required power is getting lower. This will enable manufacturers to develop small-sized wearables that used to be difficult to achieve. It is expected there will be more wireless earbuds with smaller size and longer operating time in the future and, if the price can be more reasonable, it is predictable that wireless earbuds will replace conventional wired ones one day.