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New technology being developed by Japanese company NS-ELEX Co. will allow people to have conversations on their cellphones while in noisy places such as factories, construction sites, concerts, or anywhere else noise tends to make cellphone calls just about impossible. This innovative earpiece uses a chip developed by Sanyo Electric to reduce exterior noise levels ten-fold.

"e-mimi-kun" earpiece system

NS-ELEX Co. calls this new earpiece "e-Mimi-kun" which means "good ear boy" - strange name, but cool product. The potential uses of a product such as this one are endless - especially for workers in noisy environments who need to communicate with each other.

This earpiece is actually a microphone and earphone all-in-one. The earpiece is able to pick up air vibrations within your ear, which ultimately allows you to "speak" through your ear instead of your mouth. This means that you won't have to yell into the cellphone when you're in a noisy place. The Japanese maker claims that exterior noise levels are reduced six-fold by the earpiece itself, and an additional 10 times by an accompanying noise-cancellation device developed by Sanyo, which you can see on the helmet of the man in the photo.

I'm a little curious to find out how well this earpiece actually works. I'm sure that sound quality may not be the greatest, but it at least you'll be able to hold a conversation in a noisy place without having to huddle in a quiet corner to hold a conversation on your cellphone.

This innovative gadget will work with any cellphone, and it can even connect wirelessly to a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone. Sanyo says that it will put this device on the market in April of 2008. No word yet on pricing, but stay tuned for updates...

Source: AFP via Yahoo!

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