About this project
SoundBrake- Headphone gadget alerts you to outside sounds
$12,353
140
Headphones on, world off? Not anymore!
SoundBrake is a headphone attachment you can use with any audio player to be alerted to important outside sounds while you are fully isolated in your audio.
Now you won't miss hearing a door knock, phone call, person trying to get your attention, announcement, or anything else unexpected...knock knock!
SoundBrake creates an outside volume alert level higher than your current average background noise level. For example, if you put a fan on, the alert level would be set higher than the constant fan noise.
SoundBrake creates an outside volume alert level higher than the loudest sound in your current background noise level. For example, if you don't want to be alerted to someone talking, the alert level would be set higher than their talking volume.
Press the LO button to decrease the outside volume alert level below its current level, and press the HI button to increase the outside volume alert level. The center button sets the outside volume alert level to the default level.
Whether it's your laptop, tablet, stereo, mp3 player, smartphone...
You can use SoundBrake with wireless headphones that use an external transmitter.
SoundBrake contains a rechargeable lithium ion battery. There is a micro-USB connection on its side for easy charging.
The estimated battery life on a single full charge is up to 100 hours,
Here are some everyday examples of events you don't want to miss out on while you're isolated in your headphone audio. I'm sure you could add to this list!
Battery: Rechargeable LIR2450 lithium ion coin cell
Est. Battery Life: Up to 100 hours on a single charge
Charger: Micro-USB
Weight: 0.95 oz
Why SoundBrake?
This note captures the breakthrough moment this product was named SoundBrake.
Instantly silencing audio proved to be the best way to alert headphone users to outside sound, so the name SoundBrake was only fitting...by temporarily silencing your audio, you become immediately aware that something is up. Brake that sound!
Other methods such as lowering your audio volume or diverting microphone sound to your headphones could make you unaware of the alert because you might mistakenly think it's just your audio that has changed.
Designing SoundBrake
Over two years were spent creating prototypes and testing designs.
It was important to create a simple button interface for adjusting the outside sound alert level, so there wouldn't be a time consuming trial-and-error process for the user.
The automatic adjust button that sets the alert level to be higher than your current background noise level made this simple adjustment process possible.
Aside from being sleeker, a big improvement that was made in this prototype was that a rechargeable coin cell battery replaced the AAA battery used in the previous prototype. In order to make this possible, the hardware design had to be enhanced to lower the power consumption and increase battery life. Otherwise, a full charge on this coin cell battery would have only lasted about five hours instead of up to a hundred!
This prototype was demonstrated at the Silicon Beach Fest '15 in Downtown Los Angeles and received many positive comments from attendees.
We need your backing for production!
To bring SoundBrake into production, Kickstarter funding is needed to cover the costs of the following:
- Tooling for injection molding
- Tooling for circuit board manufacturing
- Enclosure manufacturing
- Circuit board fabrication
- Circuit components/cables/chargers
- Circuit board and unit assembly
- Compliance testing
- Packaging and shipping
I'm Shari Eskenas, the founder of Sundae Electronics and inventor of SoundBrake. I thought of the idea for SoundBrake while I was working as an electrical engineer in 2013. The workplace had a no-headphones policy with the rationale that people could potentially be unaware of an emergency. I believe this is what inspired the idea of SoundBrake.
I worked on SoundBrake in my spare time, and in Spring 2015 I decided to focus full time on starting Sundae Electronics and creating a better SoundBrake prototype. SoundBrake is the first product I'm launching, and I'm very excited to see it improve your headphone experience. I plan to create a multitude of useful and fun consumer electronics products you've never seen before...
Industry Partners
After I designed the circuit and wrote the code for SoundBrake, I worked with the following companies to bring the prototype to life:
I will continue working with first-rate companies as manufacturing partners after this Kickstarter campaign.
LET'S DO THIS!
Risks and challenges
A complete working prototype of SoundBrake has been created with a tested and proven design. I can't wait to move from prototype to production so you can experience SoundBrake!
I have created an estimated timeline and production plan for the manufacturing and delivery of SoundBrake. However, as with any hardware project, I understand that there may be unforeseen delays. I promise to keep you informed of any unexpected issues or delays in the production process.
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Funding period
- (60 days)