World's First Underwater MP3 Player uses bone conduction

A final year design student at Brunel University (UK) has created an underwater MP3 player. Showcased at the Brunel University Design Show, the underwater music machine which has been dubbed 'Soundwaves' has already won inventor Sam Jones an AOL Broadband Innovator Award.Soundwaves uses 'bone conduction' technology, which when placed on both temples allows sound to be heard 'inside the users' head' in all conditions, including when fully immersed in water. This allows users to listen to music with unrivalled clarity. Vibrations from the MP3 device are passed safely through the skull to the inner ear, completely bypassing the outer ear.Simply clicking the stylish MP3 device onto a set of swimming goggles, Soundwaves, which was created in conjunction with Newlands Scientific, will contain at least 128Mb of memory, providing swimmers with several hours of underwater music entertainment - given the right swimmer, that's enough for 10 kilometres of submersed entertainment.'Swimming is a great form of exercise', said Sam of his reasons for developing Soundwaves, 'but we all know that it can be quite tedious.''Swimming up and down can become monotonous, but with the device it'll hopefully be a lot more enjoyable.'Sam regards the Innovation Award from AOL Broadband (UK) as an important recognition. 'I'm thrilled to have been picked out by AOL Broadband,' he said.' I couldn't have hoped for a better start to my career.''The award from AOL Broadband means more than the investment in my design, but represents a real vote of confidence as I leave university and head into the commercial world.''The Brunel team has been fantastic - always there to provide support whenever I needed it. Now that the time has come to turn the idea into a viable product, the award money means that Soundwaves is one step closer to the shops - my ambition is for it to be a regular feature at your local swimming pool in a few years' time!'