JBL to Develop Solar-Powered Headphones
The Samsung-owned audio tech company, JBL, is looking to find a solution that’s plaguing all wireless headphones, battery life. Any owner of a pair knows that wireless headphones only last a couple of hours before needing another charge. The audio-tech company believes it’s heading in the right path to finding an alternative. However, the company is seeking crowd-funding support to help finance their research.
Solar-Powered Technology
Recently, JBL is crowdfunding its solar-powered Reflect Eternal over-ear headphones. Theoretically, these headphones should provide its users with “virtually unlimited” listening hours. The key to this new technology, according to the company, is the Powerfoyle material from Swedish deep tech company, Exeger.
Similar to Logitech’s solar keyboards, the Powerfoyle material can draw energy from direct sunlight and indirect lighting found indoors. Unless you live in a dark and damp cave or prefer to listen to music in complete darkness, these headphones will always be charging themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXU5rGiIKcI&feature=emb_title
According to JBL’s estimations, an hour and a half of outdoor time is enough to power 68 hours of listening time, if you’re beginning with a fully-charged battery. If you’re concerned that during the short winter days might not have enough sunlight to power JBL’s Reflect Eternal headphones, fear not. The company said it has thought about this condition and offers a solution via traditional USB charging. A quick 15-minute charge will be enough juice for two hours of playback.
Besides the unique energy system, the headphones will have traditional specifications. They will come with 40mm drivers with a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency response range. They will also support hands-free calling, a feature to amplify ambient audio, multi-device pairing, and control over voice assistant of choice. The Reflect Eternal headphones are also IPX4-rated, so they can handle some water and liquids.
Crowdfunding Target Met
JBL has already met its crowdfunding target for the solar-powered headphones. So if you put $99 before the campaign ends on January 14th, 2020, you might land a pair around the estimated October 2020 release date. At this stage, the main concern of the project’s backers is whether anything will change from the Reflect Eternal. JBL and Exeger are using crowdfunding to gain feedback and tweak the design of the headphones. That said, it’s possible that complaints from the project’s backers could be addressed before its Ocotober 2020 release date.
Here on Lords of Gaming, we recommended JBL products before, and be sure to tune in for all the latest tech news.
Source: Engadget