Everything is getting smart these days. So, why not your good old headphones? Parrot (a company which makes awesome bluetooth gadgets & the famous parrot AR drone) has introduced a pair of over the ear headphones which are smart. The headphones, named Zik, have bluetooth, accelerometer & NFC chip on board which can be used to:
- Swipe the right touch sensitive panel vertically to set the volume, or swipe it horizontally to skip music forward/rewind.
- Automatically pause the music playback when you remove the headphones (this one is my favorite)
- Pair the headphones to your NFC compatible phone by just bumping them together
- Stream stereo music from your A2DP compatible phone over bluetooth
- Stream music over NFC (if your phone supports it)
The headphones have active noise cancellation (which requires battery). However. if you ever run out, you can use them as standard headphones using wire, without the awesome fancy features. Also, they are designed to reproduce sound as if it is coming from front of your, instead of from your side. Apparently, this produces some concert like listening experience.
Here is a short video demonstrating the headphones:
The headphones are coming this year. No word on pricing yet, but we are pretty sure they won’t be cheap. Just like all other Parrot’s awesome products.
[via The Verge]
