About this project
BATBAND
$821,015
BATBAND™ is an elegant piece of sound technology allowing you to listen to your private soundscape as well as the world that surrounds you. Human-centered design meets technology delivering a high fidelity acoustic experience via an innovative bone conduction system.
BATBAND™ works via bone conduction, consisting of transducers that emit sound waves perceived by your "private" inner ear, thus freeing your "social" outer ear. Sound waves are transmitted at a frequency that can be conducted through the bones of the skull. Your ears remain free, therefore you get to hear twice as much, without compromising on comfort, quality or style.
3 transducers emitting sound waves are incorporated in the product: two touching the sides of your head (temporal bone) and one at the back of your head (occipital bone). Furthermore, its discreet use means that any vocal content you receive is nearly inaudible to outsiders.
Simply place BATBAND™ around the back of your head, pair it to a mobile device through Bluetooth, control its features using the touch sensors and you are set to listen to your favourite tunes, or discreetly make and take calls.
BATBAND™ is incredibly comfortable as it has been conceived for daily use and fits your busy lifestyle: at work, in transit, with friends, whilst gaming, working out and all of these whilst keeping your ears free.
Its outer frame is made of spring steel ensuring a good grip around the back of your head and the inner padded lining guarantees maximum comfort and minimum sound leakage. BATBAND™ is easily rechargeable via USB port and requires no software or update, so all you need to worry about is having your favourite playlists to hand.
Two integrated touch sensors allow you to control its main features from your fingertips through a series of intuitive gestures.
BATBAND™ has been conceived with you and your on the go lifestyle in mind.
Unlike other bone conduction headphones, the main benefits provided by BATBAND™ result from its high fidelity sound conduction, its incorporated microphone, and its sleek and intelligent design coupled with its qualitative finishings.
* Frequency range described above is the actual manufacturers specification of transducers. The frequency changes drastically depending on the material transmitting the vibration. We have achieved frequencies below the 100hz in our lab tests and we are constantly improving on this field.
Two years ago Key and Ali, inspired by bats, dolphins and other sonar hearing creatures, met in our London studio and started dreaming of a magical way of listening to music, a new way in which one could hear and listen to the real world. Oli, from our Lausanne studio, brought a set of cables, an amplifier, a few high frequency sound transducers...and a fascinating noisy ideas meeting started!
Our friends Andy and John, from the electronic engineering research lab in Bangor University UK, got excited by our dream and together we pushed the technology further and some truly surprising sound experiences came about.
A few months later we invited Ian and Martin, from London-based Postler Ferguson, to collaborate with us on the design of this product. Working together from concept to selecting finishings has been a extraordinarily fun and rewarding process.
Early 2015 we travelled to China to perfect prototypes, discuss manufacturing and plan production rollout. Our Studio Banana Things dream team, as always, have supported the project on all levels making this exciting journey possible.
During the campaign we will share with our backers some incredibly exciting stretch goals currently in discussion. So come on!! What are you waiting for? Jump on board and let's take this acoustic dream to reality. #listenwithme
Many in the Kickstarter community may already know about us, Studio Banana Things. We are a passionate group of designers, geeks, gentle go-getters, dreamers who love to observe daily life, imagine new worlds and develop fun and functional solutions for people on the go.
We are best known for the Ostrich Pillow family, which has turned heads internationally for the last 3 years; but we are also recognized for other award-winning designs which have been exhibited in prestigious establishments such as the Museum of Modern Art New York.
For this adventure we have invited our friends from London based design studio Postler Ferguson and Innovation Quarter from Bangor University to collaborate with us and make BATBAND™ possible together.
Kickstarter, with its smart and active community of backers, is the perfect platform for us to explore our latest dreams, whilst helping busy people across the globe. We are keen to listen and learn from you during this campaign and need you every step of the way.
After 4 successful Kickstarter campaigns we know what it takes to bring a great product to your doorstep. We are super excited to welcome you to our Studio Banana Things Backers Family.
This project is promoted by Jellop, a direct response online advertising agency specialising in Kickstarter campaigns on Facebook Ads and Google AdWords.
Risks and challenges
Perfection and outstanding levels of customer service are at the core of our values and we like being frank with our fans and supporters.
BATBAND™ is an innovative product and like with all Kickstarter campaigns you will be the first to receive it and be mega wowed, we are sure of this!!! When you see BATBAND™ in retail, you must show off to your friends you made the manufacturing possible.
Moving from prototype to production brings challenges at times. We aim to deliver a remarkable ear-free headphone to you, so if we experience unexpected issues we would prefer to delay the delivery a little, and make things perfect. That said we have established some great partners and are certain everything will go as per our timeline.
During our previous Kickstarter launch's we encountered some hurdles and aim to avoid these 100%. Some of these issues were relating to legal, technical and logistics matters, we have addressed all of these aspects (we don't want the same bumps and bruises). Due to some of these hurdles we have regrettably had to reduce the number of countries we can ship to in order to avoid compromising delivery lead times.
Of course some international customs, certification, logistic delays, and Force Majeure may occasionally show their ugly head. However, rest assured we will be working full throttle to avoid any issues on our end.
SHIPMENTS
Only available to certain countries please refer to our FAQ's for full list.
EUROPEAN SHIPMENTS OUT OF EU
European backers outside of the Free Trade Zone, will be responsible for applicable tariffs and customs fees.
If your country is not listed as one of our shipping destinations please drop us a line on Kickstarter@studiobanana.com we will add you to our communications when we go to retail and you will be the first to know.
Please support us in avoiding delivery delays by providing us your full daytime delivery address together with your telephone number for our courier as soon as you receive our survey at the end of our project, keeping in mind cut off point for all shipment is within 3 months of survey. Regrettably we will not be able to fulfill deliveries post this period. Estimated shipment April 2016.
Do stay in touch with us; we love hearing from you and need you every step of the way, without you none of this would be possible.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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United States, United Arab Emirates, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Indonesia, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Malaysia, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Sweden Switzerland, Turkey, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the rest of European Union.
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Yes, it does. It has a directional microphone so it can be used as handsfree.
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Well.....we take a big portion of our inspiration from living creatures. On this occasion, bats and their amazing sonar hearing were our stimulus.
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Via Bluetooth you can hook up to any mobile device.
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Sure thing you can!
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Absolutely not, the only person who can hear is the person wearing the BATBAND. The music or communication is transmitted directly into your bones and not your ears.
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BATBAND comes with a micro usb connector and port so you can easily charge on the go.
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Hermmm??? Not at the minute but you know we are up for the challenge if we hit our goals. :-)
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We are super sorry, we are a small business and with all Kickstarter projects it is a financial juggle, we want to create a superb product and regrettably shipping to your country at the moment is not financially possible for us due to transport costs. However, if you email us on kickstarter@studiobanana.com we would be delighted to add you to our special fan list, and as soon as we go to market we will send you a pre-order mail. Thanks for your understanding.
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Yes simply do another pledge. Thanks for loving us so much!!!
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That is a really good question. Actually the bone conduction technology comes from the medical & military field. It works through the Temporal bone to the middle & inner ear. It simply helps to get the sound waves by vibrating the bone to the inner ear, the ability to hear varies based on the ability of the inner ear to receive those signals. We tried our prototype on some people with hearing problems, and results are mixed, since the damage on the inner ear can be on different levels.
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BATBAND our focus is on the lifestyle and everyday experience of people on the go. We have therefore thought of it as a product that can be used constantly and in multiple situations, not just for sports and fitness activities. Its finishings are sleek and qualitative: sturdy spring steel on the outside and comfortable padding on the inside. Its 3 strategically located transducers guarantee a hi-fidelity bone-conduction sound experience, whilst leakage is reduced to the minimum. Of course the touch sensors and the incorporated microphone are features that add to the uniqueness of the product experience too.
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Funding period
- (49 days)