Revolutionizing Music Sharing: A New Type of Headphones for Unborn Babies

[redcass]

New Kind of "Headphones"

It has been 11 years since my AP Physics class, which I passed with a "C", so please forgive me if my idea is stupid. Headphones channel sound from one point, which is fine when it is directed into one ear. But when I want to share my love of music with my unborn child, I feel that headphones, or just a loud stereo isn't that cool.

If sound is waves of molecules, and our perception of the motion is "sound", why could there not be a blanket-like "headphone" that I could drape over my belly; the waves would pass through my body and placenta (mostly liquids) and therefore be perceived by the baby, no? I see it much like the bone oscillator hearing-aids that help so many hearing impaired.

I believe my logic is not flawed, although I do not know if such a device could be built, since it defies today's common idea of how we get our music delivered to us.

So am I crazy, or what?

 

[FredGarvin]

The only thing about the blanket idea is the constraint of the speaker element. In a regular speaker of any kind, the speaker element is constrained around the edges which provides the ability for the membrane to vibrate and thus transfer the motion to the surroundings. In a blanket, there is no constraint for the speaker element, so I can't see how it would move enough to do what it needs to.

It's an interesting idea. I'm going to think a bit more of other ways to deliver sound.