Even more cool sports gadgets coming out of CES this week, this one from Silicon Valley Global, a new company from the founder of RadioShack, Richard Brown. The Tunebug Shake is a vibration speaker that turns your helmet into a surround sound audio system. We all know that it is dangerous to wear headphones while cycling or snowboarding. Well now the Tunebug Shake allows you to listen to music while still being able to hear what is happening in the environment around you.
Tunebug's patented SurfaceSound Technology enables sound waves to pass through the surface of your helmet, ultimately turning it into a speaker itself. Vibration speakers generally work by changing electrical energy of digital music into the mechanical energy of sounds waves.
The sounds waves are amplified and driven into, through and out of the surface of the helmet, ultimately turning it into a high quality speaker with 360 degree listening. Normally vibration speakers work best on flat surfaces so I will be interested to see how they work on the curved surfaces of a helmet.
Weighing just 2.4 oz, the Tunebug Shake connects to your iPod , MP3 player, or mobile phone via Bluetooth and is mounted on your helmet by either a velcro strap or gecko mount (see above picture). The rechargeable battery will last for up to 5 hours of continuous play and uses a standard USB cable to charge. The Tunebug Shake is water resistant with large buttons for volume controls and power on/off.
The Tunebug Shake will retail for $119.95 and will be available to order from the company website by the end of the month.