Headphones are great, but the cables are annoying. Split by Greenwing Audio hopes to get rid of the wires with two tiny wireless earbuds.
Wireless bluetooth headphones already exist, but are either joined by some sort of cable, or unwieldy and expensive earbuds with short battery life.
Split takes a different approach. The two earbuds are totally separate, with their own batteries, storage, processors, and music players built-in.
Burst over stream
The earbuds then use short radio bursts to synchronise on-board clocks, which then allow the earbuds to play your music in-sync without having to be constantly connected.
Every time you change, pause or play the track, or adjust the volume, the two earbuds briefly communicate to tell each other what's going on.
By using quick bursts rather than streaming music between each earbud, the radiation emitted by the earphones is significantly reduced and so is the demand on the batteries.
Small and bite-friendly
Using synchronised clocks and quick radio bursts allows Split to be much smaller and lighter than traditional Bluetooth or other wireless earphones, making them just one inch long, and barely bigger than the earbud itself, with a four-hour battery.
To start playback you can just separate the earbuds, which are magnetically held together. From there, music playback control is managed by using a 3-axis accelerometer that detects when you bite. One bite 'click' skips the track, while a double bite cycles through the volume settings.
A tap on the right earphone will lock or unlock the player, meaning you can still eat without constantly changing the track.
Split is currently looking for $435,000 of support on Kickstarter with pledges starting at $10, and a pledge of $155 securing you a pair of red Split earphones.
Why it might not work
Instead of taking music from your phone or audio player, Split needs your music to be stored directly on the earphones. That means you have no visual control over the playback or playlist, and you only have room for up to 24 songs.
It also means that streaming services like Spotify or Google All Access Music are out, as you have to have the music files themselves, with supported file types including MP3, AAC and WAV files.
Why it might take off
The Split earbuds are some of the smallest headphones you can buy, which makes them ideal for listening to music while exercising, and being wireless means you totally remove the problem of tangled cables and catchable wires.
They also don't depend on another device to supply the music, meaning that the music won't stop if your phone or audio player runs out of battery.
The innovative bite control also makes managing playback a lot easier and entirely hands free, which could be great for all sorts of occasions when your hands are tied up, but you need to skip the track or change the volume.
With hands-free control and without having to rely on your phone, Split could be the ultimate, discrete in-ear wireless headphones.
Overall: a four-star rating
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