Scenario: a group of people are gathered around a table in a noisy pub or bar. Unfortuantely the ambient sound level is so high as to make conversation extremely difficult.

Hence the Bluetooth private chat box. It's a simple bluetooth audio switch. On the basis that all the people round the table have a bluetooth earpiece and a bluetooth enabled phone, they all bond their phones with the chat box. A PAN is then created which links the earpieces on a voice-keyed basis; the box also contains a microphone which performs noise cancellation on the signal, improving audibility.

Nobody neeeds to shout, everyone can hear, and even someone who's gone to the bar for more drinks is still part of the conversation.
-- 8th of 7, Jan 01 2008

Bajoran Hearing aid Bajoraan_20Hearing_20Aid
Similar ... [8th of 7, Jan 01 2008]

Fake Bluetooth Hearing Aid Fake_20Bluetooth_20Hearing_20Aid
... and more... [8th of 7, Jan 01 2008]

I could use this. After three or four drinks I lose the ability to tune out background noise, making conversation in a noisy pub almost impossible. That and the fact that I talk quietly anyway.
-- egbert, Jan 01 2008


I've wondered why this doesn't exist already. Here's another idea for you:
Hearing aids with the same capability.
-- phoenix, Jan 01 2008


Already partly HalfBaked ....

<link>
-- 8th of 7, Jan 01 2008


I think this might make a very challenging project for a final year undergrad or Masters student.

It's not a completely simple concept - you'd have to work out a contention mechanism (maybe push-to-talk). However, having a central controller makes it easier than an ad-hoc approach (which would require a fully connected mesh or multi-hop topology).

<Goes off to consider merits of project...>
-- Jinbish, Jan 01 2008


Wow, which Bluetooth (initials removed to lesson indeciphrable offence) headset do you use? I've tried a bunch and none of them can hear as well as I can. There are some bone conduction sets and a new one that uses something similar that might work and if they did, this is a great idea. Bun(+) I guess bars would be good too, but this would sell big at lots noisy places that presently use radios like motorcycling, skiing, cycling, warehouses and other noisy workplaces.
-- MisterQED, Jan 02 2008


// headset //

Motorola H350; and be so good as to remove the spawn-of-satan glyph [letter after A, letter before U] from your annotation, lest we be compelled by good taste to delete the entire thing, and cleanse the land with fire and the sword and sowing the ground with salt.

"Bluetooth" is fine; sadly the actual rune is not yet widely available in character sets. But what you have put is positively offensive ....
-- 8th of 7, Jan 02 2008


Argh, I went right through that anno looking for an A and a U with something weird between.
-- david_scothern, Jan 02 2008


You're looking for a smack, aren't you ?
-- 8th of 7, Jan 03 2008


<gives [8th] a boost>
-- Jinbish, Jan 03 2008


If the background noise which makes these necessary is some sort of objectionble music, and everyone's wearing blueteeth headsets (note the plural form), then get rid of the music, and just play it at a reduced volume through the headsets, when someone in your network isn't talking.
-- hippo, Jan 03 2008


"Woob woob woob woob! Why I oughtta!"
-- Jinbish, Jan 03 2008


<blub...blub...bubble..... EYYAAAAARRRRRRWWWK !>
-- 8th of 7, Jan 03 2008


I'm still wondering why a workable product of this sort isn't widely known and available in the marketplace. My hearing is fine in most circumstances, but I couldn't make out half of what my dinner companion had to say tonight in a popular but noisy upscale restaurant. I would have loved to have had a bluetooth earstick that allowed me to savor her every utterance, especially knowing that every word was meant only for me.
-- jurist, Jul 24 2010


Come to think of it, the cast members on the TV show "Leverage" (Timothy Hutton, et al) use earbud devices something like these to intercommunicate between team members as they are enacting their stings/capers. Ought to be standard issue available in six-pack-clamshells at any local Best Buys store.
-- jurist, Jul 24 2010


// i frequently forget to bring my Bluetooth //

You could have it permanently implanted. We can help with that ...

// none I've been to are loud enough to need this //

That's probably because when you go in, the conversation stops, and then the smart patrons leave.

// go out to the beer garden //

... with the mosquitoes and the wasps and the smokers. Oh lovely.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 24 2010


// //none I've been to// // A neat little problem in inductive reasoning, suitable for an introductory Statistics course: Does [21_Quest] frequent those bars because they're quiet, or are they quiet because he frequents them?

I picture it like this: [21Q] pushes throgh the Western-style swinging doors, and the saloon goes dead quiet, except for the out-of-tune piano, which continues for about half a bar more of Camptown Races before falling silent as well. [21Q] walks slowly to the bar, spurs jingling, and orders a whisky.
-- mouseposture, Jul 24 2010


Actually ...

" [21Q] pushes throgh the Western-style swinging doors, walks slowly to the bar, spurs jingling, and orders a whisky. In order to drink the whisky, he removes the paper bag he wears over his head.

Dogs howl, hens stop laying, milk turns sour, small birds fall out of the sky, the mirror behind the bar shatters and all the clocks stop. The saloon goes dead quiet, except for the out-of-tune piano, which continues for about half a bar more of Camptown Races before falling silent as well. Patrons depart as quickly and inconspicuously as possible, apart from one guy with a white stick, who is holding his nose and scrabbling in his pocket for a clothes peg and breath mints....."
-- 8th of 7, Jul 24 2010



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