Whenever there is talk of a innovative ideas these days, people almost inevitably tend to think of a groundbreaking app or software that is being developed by tech experts from the Valley or Berlin. Not this time though. Bragi, a hardware-centered startup based in Munich, is drawing fresh attention to the promise of good ol’ fashioned German engineering know-how through their most recent innovation.

You’ve heard of smartphones, smartwatches, and maybe even smartpants, but the German startup Bragi has just used Kickstarter to gather steam for an entirely new concept: smart headphones. The so-called Dash headphones raised over USD 3.3million, therefore exceeding the original goal USD 260,000 by 1,300%. So the question comes to mind: What makes the Dash headphones so special?

 

Well, first off not only do they offer the usual slate of advanced features like Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a built-in mic, they perform all sorts of functions that have nothing to do with audio. As visualized in the image above, the Dash has three main functions: Listen, Track, Communicate.

Listen

Even if you have no interest in using the Dash for their athlete-focused properties, the smart headphones offer up even more impressive features. For instance, the headphones offer passive noise isolation to say, let you sleep on a plane, but you can also turn on “audio transparency” to pass through ambient noise when you need it, like riding a bike. The Dash are completely water-resistant (the video shows a surfer using the ‘phones) and an embedded 4GB music player can hold roughly 1,000 songs to play when you don’t have a phone connected.

Track

The Dash tracks the body’s performance during exercise, monitoring speed, time, distance and cadence, as well as heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy spent. All of these statistics are monitored in real-time while acoustic feedback is provided in the background. For instance, a demo video for the Dash shows a skier hearing his heart rate, speed, drop rate, pulse and pace during a run. Apparently the headphones achieve this with some very delicate little tools: a 3-axis accelerometer, infrared LED and optical sensor, a five-field capacitive sensor, and even a 32-bit ARM processor like you might find in a smartphone. It even works without an attached smartphone.

Communicate

In addition to being earphones, the Dash can also double as a Bluetooth Headset delivering clear voice quality through the embedded ear bone microphone. A swipe on the capacitive touch surface will enable or disable ambient sound to pass through. The Dash has an ambient microphone in the left and right ear phone. It records, when needed, a wide frequency range, from engine noise to birds singing and also promises to be able to translate foreign languages in real time.

 

According to rankings on Kickstarter, the campaign is the largest donation-based funding drive by a European start-up to date —a milestone for the German tech scene. The Dash headphones can be pre-ordered for USD 299 over the offical website. I don’t know about you but I’ve been waiting for a product like this for a very long time. Sleek German engineering paired with multinational design and usability sound pretty promising – the price however, not so much.

 

Pictures: © bragi.com