About this project
The Dash – Wireless Smart In Ear Headphones
$3,390,551
15,998
Electronics should be discrete enablers of delightful and magical experiences. Our aim is for you to achieve a better understanding of your skills, abilities and health while doing the things you love. We think that with your support in this campaign, The Dash could become a truly remarkable addition to our lives.
Music is a part of everyone's life. It brings joy, excitement and motivation. However it is not always a pleasure listening to music with headphones. Cables tangle, pull at the headphones and ultimately break. In addition, accessing online content from a smartphone is awesome but needing to carry a smartphone all the time can be a real pain.
The Dash consists of a pair of discrete and completely wireless stereo earphones.They will playback music through a Bluetooth connection or use the embedded 4GB/1000 song music player. Everything about the design is focused on delivering freedom of movement, incredible sound and comfort. The Dash is awesome for sports and great for everything else.
The Dash works in sympathy with the wearer. Movements like pace, steps, cadence and distance are tracked. Heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy spent are measured, all the while real time acoustic feedback is provided. It even works without an attached smartphone.
Safety and the ability to communicate with others are important. In addition to being earphones, the Dash will double as a Bluetooth Headset delivering clear voice quality through the embedded ear bone microphone. The ear bone microphone is not sensitive to background noise, since it picks up mechanical vibration generated by your voice from the ear bone.
Even though The Dash provides impressive noise isolation, the wearer can choose to channel ambient sound into the headphone with the transparent audio feature. A swipe on the capacitive touch surface of The Dash will enable or disable ambient sound to pass through.
Your pledge will help us deliver a friendly and discrete assistant that will enhance real life experiences. Buying devices that would equal the functions of The Dash will set you back at least 500$.
We've done three dimensional scans of hundreds of ears and tested different shapes. Finally three shapes developed that would provide comfort and fit for a broad range of ears. Silicone sleeves matching the three sizes (S/M/L) are delivered with The Dash package.
Why The Dash will fit perfectly:
- Three different sized silicone sleeves to fit your ear
- No cables pulling on the headphones
- Lightweight — a Dash ear phone weighs less than 13,8 grams
- Ergonomic design
- Three Point Secure Fit
Controls
- General: Volume, audio transparency, pair devices
- Music controls: Play, pause, next, back
- Only embedded playback: Shuffle, select playlist
- Communication controls: Answer, end, reject, hold
- Tracking controls: Start/stop, 3 upon demand feedback macros, forced feedback on minimum, maximum and time goals
- Sync music via USB 2.0 and sensor data via USB and Bluetooth
"The Dash is a discrete device that delivers clear sound without blocking out what is going on around us. The Dash's ability to tell us how long we have exercised for, how far we have travelled and how fast we are moving, whilst also delivering heart rate readings and oxygen saturation level, suddenly puts this device as one of the most innovative, yet necessary pieces of audio technology in modern times."
Helle Frederiksen, FEB 2014
USE THE DASH WITH YOUR APP
In developer mode The Dash provides access to processed or unprocessed data and audio feeds. Integrate The Dash with your application and entirely new opportunities emerge.
Imagine
- Imagine The Dash protecting you. A sound or sensor trigger could alert emergency services, all the while transmitting your vital readings and position.
- Imagine The Dash being used by firefighters to monitor their health and improve communications.
- Imagine being able to identify infections or injuries in combination with 3rd party sensors by using sensor fusions.
- Imagine being able to talk with a foreigner by having the conversation translated on the fly.
See the developer pledge on the right, if you wish to integrate The Dash with your app. For the latest information on the SDK and how to develop for The Dash, please sign up for our Developer Newsletter here: www.bragi.com/developer
HOW IT WORKS
The Dash is still in development and we have learned from previous development projects that unforeseen challenges might change the specifications. These are our current preliminary specifications:
General
- Lightweight, shock resistant, waterproof and water resistant to 1m
- Smartphone sensors and GPS data provide additional functions if your phone is with you
- iOS / Android / Windows Phone App controls audio, sensor and tracking settings as well as a Lost Device Tracker
Speaker
- Type: In-Ear Style, double barrier passive noise isolation (20-30 dB)
- Response bandwidth 20-20000 Hz
- Impedance 16 Ohm
- Output 10 mW RMS (with level limit)
- Total harmonic distortion <2% (1 KHz, 1 mW)
- Audio format: 16 bit stereo
Microphone
- Custom Bragi Ear Bone MEMS microphone
- Ambient microphone: MEMS omnidirectional, Sensitivity -43 dB +3/-3 dB (1 KHz, 0 dB = 1 V/Pa)
Bluetooth
- Dual Mode Bluetooth 4.0
- Audio compatibility with classic Bluetooth devices (A2DP profile, CSR aptX® audio codec)
- Full compatibility with Apple: iPhone® >= 4S, iPod® Touch 5th generation and later, iPad® 3rd generation and later
- Full compatibility with: Android: any device with Bluetooth LE hardware running under Android version 4.3 Jelly Bean (API Level 18) or later
- Full compatibility with: Windows Phone: any device with Bluetooth LE hardware support running under Windows Phone 8.1
- True Wireless Audio
- CSR aptX® audio codec
- Up to six paired devices (One at a time)
- Bluetooth sound overrules embedded playback
- Embedded music player: 4GB data storage. MP3, AAC (No DRM)
Battery (expected)
- Play & track time 3 hours
- Play time 4 hours
- Track time 7 hours
- Standby time 250 hours
- Charging time less than 1 hour
- Charging: Micro USB (power plug not included)
- Type: 100 mAh Lithium Polymer
Compatibility (needs Bluetooth LE for full functionality)
- iPhone® 4S, 5, 5C, 5S
- iPad® (3rd generation and later)
- Android phones with Bluetooth 4.0 LE support (See detailed description »Bluetooth« above)
- Limited support for Windows Phone and Blackberry (See detailed description »Bluetooth« above)
- FOR AUDIO SUPPORT: Any Bluetooth A2DP or aptX® compatible device
1 year limited warranty
Nikolaj Hviid created the concept for The Dash after having been CEO of a design agency and Head of Design at Harman.
Together with Josef Scheider, former Head of Mechanical Design at AKG, Arne Loermann, designer, and Toby Martin, embedded software developer, we brought the project to life.
A year later our international team consists of 20 people, with an average of 20,9 years of experience. The combined number of patents and awards far exceed 200. Together we have brought more than 400 products to market, gaining experience in the fields of expertise needed to bring The Dash to life. We love what we do, and we love The Dash.
The Dash has a great user experience, and it is easy to use. It is a beautifully designed product that will enable you to do amazing things.
If you feel you can contribute with something we did not consider or anything else of value, do contact us at hello@bragi.com. We are openminded!
Now we need you to get The Dash in the hands of users and developers everywhere. We need your support to overcome the initial costs for tooling and materials. Support the world's first smart in ear headphones; support The Dash. Thank you very much!
Risks and challenges
Due to the incredible small size of The Dash, we use miniature components. For some of these we only have a single supplier. Even though we have a close dialog with our suppliers, we are not in control of their actions. Every component is highly integrated into and optimized within the design, and an unforeseen component alteration can delay our launch.
The Dash has a complex Bluetooth setup that we have tested vigorously in our labs. We might encounter real life applications, where we cannot guarantee for the quality of operations. We will continue to improve our software throughout the launch to improve functionality.
The team has a very strong background in design for manufacturing. We have manufacturing flow, testing procedures and sourcing of parts well defined. Even if we encounter high demand, we will be able to scale production and logistics accordingly.
We believe that we will start shipping The Dash to our supporters in November 2014.
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support this project
Funding period
- (50 days)