When it comes to electronic gadgets, the Japanese are a weird bunch of people. They've come up with some of the greatest developments ever achieved in this field, but also with some of the strangest and most useless ones. And the VONIA BCT SportsHeadband developed by the USB-crazy people over at Thanko really fits the profile, as it allows users to "broadcast" music directly into their ear canal, via their own skull bones.

Bone conduction technology is nothing new, really, but up until now it was used mainly for underwater headphones, where normal headphones have the very nasty habit of not working. The technology is based on the principle of vibrations, and the headphones that use this technology, instead of transforming the electric signals into sounds, turn them into vibrations, propagated through the bones and into the ear canal.

However, as we all know only too well, regardless of how proficient our headphones might be, they simply can't compete with the huge level of noise experienced in....big crowds, for example. That's the reason why Thanko has developed the aforementioned headband, which acts as a pair of conduction headphones. Moreover, they offer a storage space for an MP3 player with a small form factor (the iPod Shuffle is the first thing that comes to mind), so that the user won't have any wires hanging around while he goes jogging, for example.

Nevertheless, the device works with just about any other player fitted with a 3.5 mm jack, and can even be used underwater, since it's completely waterproof. The VONIA BCT SportsHeadband has an output of around 30mW, will set you back around 90 US dollars (and a few neurons, on the top), if you happen to live in Japan, that is. In any case, extreme caution must be taken when using these headphones, since a maximum volume might land you directly in the hospital. (No, just kidding).

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