Bose has been moving forward with its products in quite a few ways recently, adding Google Assistant to its QC35 headphones, introducing its first fully wireless earbuds, and even crowdfunding earbuds specifically designed to help you sleep. Now it appears that the company is focusing on making sport earbuds that actually help keep you comfortable during your workout.
A patent application filed by Bose point to earbuds that use an elastomer — that’s basically a fancy way of saying rubber — filled with one or more “phase change materials” that can change from solid to liquid, and then back to solid. This transition would take place at a certain target temperature, allowing the materials to absorb heat by changing to liquid, then change back to solid once the heat is dispersed.
At this point, you may be wondering what this has to do with earbuds. It’s simple really: Bose earbuds that are made using these new materials could essentially change their temperature based on how hot you are getting to help keep you cool. Bose’s own words in the application state that the goal is to reduce discomfort caused by heat and pressure.
Images used in patent applications are often hard to translate into how the product would actually function in the real world. That isn’t the case here, though, as the images show something that looks very close to the silicon rubber tips used on many of Bose’s in-ears. The only difference is that these would be filled with the “phase change materials” mentioned above, which would likely be some sort of gel.
As is always the case, we need to point out that companies file patents for things they never use, or even intend to use, all the time. Bose could simply be using a design that looks close to its actual images because that was the easiest thing to do at the time. That said, if the company moves forward with this idea, it could mean that your daily run becomes more comfortable than ever before.
Since this is a patent and not an announcement, it will probably be a long time before we see headphones on the market using this technology, if we ever see them at all. In the meantime, check out our list of the best headphones for runners.
