Today's invention: These are Bluetooth stereo wireless earbuds, custom 3D printed to fit your ear sockets, based on an ear scan you do with your phone.
The claim: 'OwnPhones are custom made to be the best-fitting, best-sounding, most versatile earphones you've ever worn. Period. They are the world's first wireless, 3D printed earbuds custom made to match your personality. They are designed to fit perfectly because your OwnPhones will be built exclusively for your ears.'
Price: $300 and up. (Half price for Kickstarter backers.)
Goal: The inventor seeks $250,000 in backing. With 23 days to go, the project has already raised $231,000. So this project will almost certainly reach its goal.
Status: There are no working prototypes. No OwnPhones have ever played any sound, because the electronics don't exist yet.
The scanning app doesn't exist, either. Several 3D printed earphones have been made, but the team used the iPhone's built-in Camera app to make the 'scans' of their own ears.
The inventor, Itamar Jobani, says that he has a core team of eight people, plus a couple of dozen more who participate as needed (for example, an audiologist who comes by occasionally). He says he plans to rely heavily on corporate partners to get the product designed, tested, and manufactured.
What I tested: I met with Mr. Jobani, who brought a handsome case full of wild earphone designs. He's primarily an artist (a sculptor), and his vision is that the highest-end OwnPhones models will be jewelry.
I wasn't able to listen to the OwnPhones, because the electronics have yet to be designed. I couldn't try scanning my ears, because the scanning app hasn't been written. Nor could I try a pair from the box, because the existing earphone shells have all been made to fit the ears of Jobani or people on his team.
What I learned: It's amazing how much money and press attention this concept has racked up, based on nothing but an extremely compelling idea and a really well-made video. In my time reviewing Kickstarter projects, I've seen many that are much further along the road to being finished products but that haven't received nearly this much funding or attention.
That's not to say that I'm not a believer. This is a really brilliant idea.
It's not a new one, though. Custom 3D earbuds, made just for your ears, are nothing new; companies like Etymotic and UltimateEars have been making just-for-you earphones for years. But ordering them requires you to make an appointment at an audiologist. It costs a lot of time and money. According to Jobani, most of the customers are recording artists and professionals.
Hearing aids, though, have been custom 3D printed for years, he says - 10 million pairs so far - so the technical aspects of his idea are well within reach. Why shouldn't earbud owners enjoy the same customization?
If all pieces of the OwnPhones master plan fall together, it will work like this:
You'll download a free app to your phone. You'll hold a credit card up to your temple (for scale). You'll move the phone around, and the app will film your ear.
Your ear-shape data will go off to OwnPhones' servers. To make mass production possible, the company won't actually create a whole new computer model of every person's ears. Instead, your scan will be compared to a database of 250 common ear shapes; your 3D 'mesh' will be fitted to one of these existing mesh models to make the process faster.
You'll have a choice of four models:
* Fit. The base model is just a blob of plastic, in a color you choose.
* Designer Fit. These more expensive models offer some crazy artisan designs, materials, and patterns. (Jobani modeled one for me.)
* Smart Fit. These are the OwnPhones for the gadget freak. Using a phone app, you'll be able to indicate which environmental sounds you want admitted to your ear: doorbell yes, phone yes, lawnmower no.
You'll also be able to make a colored LED appear on the earphone's outer surface that serves as a traffic light for coworkers: Red for 'go away,' yellow for 'I'm busy but OK,' and green for 'Sure, come and chat.'
(I'm not at all convinced that this feature will see the light of day.)
* Jewelry Collection. Possibly the biggest idea of OwnPhones is making these devices into jewelry. Some examples:
All four types of OwnPhones will be, surprisingly enough, pairs of earphones (you get two) that don't have a wire connecting them. This is a pretty new idea - individual stereo unwired right and left earbuds. These babies will be much easier to lose.
The bottom line: 3D printing earbuds for each customer is, for sure, a killer idea. Clearly, the Kickstarter public thinks it's a $250,000 idea.
The company has all kinds of hopes for the final product. It expects that each battery charge will last five to six hours (an hour less for the fancy Smart Fit models). There will be a microphone so you can make phone calls. The sound will be fantastic ('dual driver, balanced armature, premium sound'), which will be helped along because they'll fit so well, preventing low frequencies from leaking out.
But, to put this as gently as a true fan of the idea possibly can, they're kind of just making all this up. There's no prototype, not even a crude hand-assembled model. They have no idea what obstacles may lie ahead; this is all just a delicious, extremely compelling idea for a product.
Jobani is an artist. He's never designed electronics, never worked with audio, never run a company, never seen a product through to the marketplace. He says, though, that he's allied himself with experts and existing companies who know exactly what they're doing - a plausible plan.
I dearly wish that we had more to go on before having to decide to contribute $150 to this Kickstarter campaign. That's the minimum donation to receive an early-bird pair of OwnPhones when they come out in what the company says will be March 2015.
But I love the ideas behind it. I wish OwnPhones, and its backers, the best of luck.
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