iWatch不算什麼 智能耳機纔是正宗的可穿戴設備大綱

With Apple’s acquisition of Beats this year, headphones have suddenly become a focal point for the consumer technology industry. If you look closely, though, you’ll realize that they’ve always been there.
隨着蘋果公司（Apple）斥巨資收購Beats公司，耳機一夜之間成了消費電子科技行業的焦點。其實如果你瞭解得更深入一些，你會發現耳機從來沒有走遠。

We take headphones for granted. We forget they’re jammed in our ears or hanging around our neck. They were “wearable” back when the term meant the shirt at the top of the laundry pile. They have been feeding us data from our smartphones since smartphones existed. Yet they have remained at the margins of the wearable tech rush. Until Apple’s $3 billion buy, that is.
我們一直把耳機的存在當成天經地義的事情，甚至忘了我們正把它塞在耳朵裏或掛在脖子上。早在“可穿戴”這個詞指的是晾衣杆上掛着的襯衣的時候，耳機就已經是真真正正的“可穿戴”之物。自從智能手機發明以來，它就忠實地把智能手機裏的信息傳遞給我們。儘管如此，耳機一直處於可穿戴科技浪潮的邊緣地帶，直到蘋果公司以30億美元的高價收購了Beats，這種現象才得以改觀。

Apple AAPL -0.61% , as the company is wont to do, has said little about whether its acquisition was driven by talent (namely co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre), technology, or something else entirely. All CEO Tim Cook seems to talk about is how much he loves music. Yet in interviews with Fortune, leaders in headphone design and biometric research say that headphones have the ability to be much more than mere private audio listening devices.
蘋果對於這筆交易依然保持着平日的低調，很少提起這次次收購究竟是看中了Beats的人才（如創始人傑米o艾歐文和Dr. Dre）、技術，還是別的什麼東西。蘋果CEO蒂姆o庫克只是說他有多麼愛音樂。不過在接受《財富》（Fortune）採訪時，一些耳機設計和生物計量研究領域的頂尖專家表示，耳機的能力遠遠不止是作爲聽音樂的工具而已。

Technophiles have spent the last couple of years obsessing about wearable technology—things like fitness bands, smart watches, and funny-looking glasses intended to give the wearer easier access to information about themselves and the world around them. For headphones, their pre-existing normality may be smart headphones’ ace in the competitive hole.
過去幾年來，科技愛好者們無不對可穿戴技術感到癡迷，健身腕帶、智能手機和模樣古里古怪的智能眼鏡等可穿戴設備也層出不窮，爲的都是讓用戶能更輕易地獲得關於人們自身和周邊世界的信息。至於耳機，由於消費者本就對它十分依賴，這也就成了耳機在可穿戴市場上競爭的一張王牌。

“Headphones were the first mass-accepted wearables,” says Noel Lee, founder and CEO of headphone maker Monster and the lead sound engineer for the original Beats headphones. Beats took that normality a step further by turning high-end headphones into fashion accessories fit for a rock or rap star.
耳機廠商Monster公司創始人兼CEO、Beats公司首席音響師李美聖稱：“耳機是第一款大範圍被人們接受的可穿戴設備。”Beats公司更是把高端耳機變成了連說唱歌手、搖滾巨星也趨之若鶩的時尚配飾。

But ears also happen to be great sources of biometric information. In many ways, headphones are a more logical place for digital health and sports functions than the electronic wristbands currently in vogue. “You can measure a lot more at the ear than at other parts of the body,” says Steven LeBoeuf, a specialist in ear biometrics at the sensor-design firm Valencell. That includes blood pressure, heart rate, ECG, and core body temperature, which is particularly tough to get from a wristband. Headphones may also be better at health monitoring than wristbands because putting them on is already a part of many people’s daily routines.
人的耳朵恰好也是獲取生物計量信息的好地方。從很多方面來看，要想測量人體的健康信息或是實現可穿戴設備的健身功能，從耳機着手應該是比時下流行的智能腕帶更合理的選擇。傳感器設計公司Valencell的耳部生物測量專家史蒂芬o勒伯夫指出：“我們能從耳部測量出的信息要比身體其它部位多得多。”比如血壓、心率、心電數據和身體核心溫度等，尤其最後一項，很難通過腕帶測定。耳機更適合監測人體健康的另一個原因，則是現在很多人早已習慣每天戴着耳機了。

By combining biometric data with other sensors—GPS, an accelerometer, or an advanced sound processing unit—headphones could become a new kind of performance enhancer. “[Your headphones] could figure out if you’re cycling, or hunting, or golfing,” says I.P. Park, CTO of the audio device manufacturer Harman HAR 0.80% . “Based on the situation, maybe there are features and services these headphones could provide you.”
通過把人體的生物體徵數據與其它傳感器相結合（比如GPS、加速計或者一個先進的聲音處理單元），耳機還能夠提供更多的妙用。比如音響設備製造商哈曼公司（Harman）的技術總監I.P.帕克說：“大家的耳機能分辨出我們到底是在騎自行車、打獵還是打高爾夫。根據現實情況，耳機或許還能爲我們提供一些特殊的功能和服務。”For instance, when you get on your bicycle, your headphones could automatically let you hear the sounds of nearby cars through your electronic dance music, solving one of the major conflicts between safety and enjoyment for cyclists. Hunters could use specialty headphones to separate game noises from environmental sound. A headphone worn by a football or soccer player could filter out crowd noise and amplify teammates’ voices— a serious blow to Seattle’s “12th Man” or any other deafening fan bases, and a potentially thorny issue for sports commissioners.
比如當你騎自行車的時候，你的耳機可以自動讓你在聽音樂的同時聽見周圍汽車的聲音，這就解決了安全與聽音樂之間的一個大矛盾。獵手可以通過專門的耳機區分獵物的聲響與噪聲。足球運動員戴的耳機可以過濾觀衆的噪聲，放大隊友的聲音。這對西雅圖海鷹隊的“第12人”或者其他震耳欲聾的粉絲團將是個沉重的打擊。當然，它也可能將成爲體育官員們要應對的一個棘手的問題。

Miniaturization has already nearly made it possible for headphones to pack in all that capability. The recent Kickstarter project for Dash earbuds, a wireless pair of earphones made by a company called Bragi, already cram some biometric sensors, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 4GB of storage into a device meant to fit inside a user’s ear. Park predicts that wireless technology will be typical of future headphones as LTE and Wi-Fi connections spread to smaller electronic devices.
微型化技術的發展使得如今的耳機差不多已經可以實現上述所有功能。比如布拉吉公司（Bragi）最近生產的一款Dash無線耳機小到可以塞進耳孔，卻同時搭載了一些生物測量傳感器、一個微型話筒、藍牙裝置和4GB的存儲空間，真是麻雀雖小，五臟俱全。帕克認爲，隨着LTE和Wi-Fi連接普及到小型電子設備上，無線技術對於未來的耳機來說將成爲司空見慣的事。

Biometrics could also make headphones even more central to the gaming world. There’s what LeBeouf calls “relaxation gaming,” which would use sound feedback to train a user, such as a therapy patient, to enter a relaxed state. LeBoeuf also imagines using headphone biometrics to affect play in more traditional video games. A biofeedback-enabled game might require you to actually get angry to transform from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk, or a character in a social game could be given a different appearance based on the users’ own fitness.
另外，生物計量技術可能使耳機在遊戲界的地位變得越來越重要。比如勒伯夫所說的“放鬆遊戲”可以利用聲音的反饋對用戶進行訓練，比如可以讓一個聲音患者進入放鬆狀態。另外，勒伯夫還認爲，在不久的將來，我們說不定可以利用耳機的生物測量功能來玩傳統遊戲。比如說在一款需要生物體徵反饋的遊戲中，如果你想從布魯斯o班納變成綠巨人，你就必須真的生氣才行；或者在某款社交遊戲中，根據用戶本人的健身效果，遊戲裏的人物形象也會被賦予不同的外觀。

Music and games may be the gateway drugs, but smart headphones could also make sound the basis for information services of a sort we’ve never seen before. Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her depicted a close relationship between a user and his artificial intelligence-equipped personal assistant, who interacts with him only through an earpiece. Harman’s Park thinks that’s prophetic. “Earphones or headphones are going to become major information hubs, just like smartphones now.”
音樂使遊戲雖然能讓人上癮，但是智能耳機的功能遠遠不止於此。它能使聲音成爲一種信息服務的基礎，發揮出我們難以想象的效力。斯派克o瓊斯在2013年的電影《她》（Her）中描繪了主角與他的人工智能助手之間的親密關係，而他們之間的溝通就是僅僅通過一部耳機。哈曼公司的帕克認爲這一點非常有預見性。“耳機將成爲一個重要的信息中心，就像今天的智能手機一樣。”

“But,” he adds, “a lot of things have to be done along the way.” That includes pushing voice recognition and response technologies much further. “How many people use Google Voice as their dominant interface? It has to be 100% accurate.” The same thing goes for Apple’s Siri.
不過他補充道：“但是要發展到這一步，還有很多工作要做。”包括進一步推動語音識別與應答技術的發展。“有多少人用谷歌的Google Voice當主要界面？它必須要100%的精確。”同理，對蘋果的Siri也是一樣。

Still, no matter how good natural language processing gets, a full-fledged headphone interface would likely combine voice with gestures through touchpads on the headphones’ surface. Input may also come from head movement, such as nodding your head to one side to skip to the next song.
不過，不管自然語言處理技術發展得多好，一套成熟的智能耳機界面恐怕還是離不開語音控制與手勢控制（手勢操作可在耳機外殼的觸摸板上進行）。另外，大家也可以通過頭部運動進行輸入，比如將頭擺向一邊就可以切換到下一首歌。

Smart headphones would be most useful when driven by context rather than command, Park said. He envisions headphones able to anticipate and provide for a user’s needs “based on where you are, based on the current context of your situation. We call it augmented hearing.” That could include things like providing a tour of a museum or describing landmarks in a new city.
帕克認爲，智能耳機最能大顯身手的時候，是受環境驅動、而非受指令驅動的時候。他暢想道：“根據你所在的地方，所處的環境，”未來的耳就機能夠預估用戶的需求，提供相應的服務。比如在博物館裏提供導遊服務，或是在一座新城市裏標出地標建築等。

And let’s not forget what headphones were originally designed for. With greater context awareness, connectedness, and processing power, “smart” headphones could enhance the audio listening experience. With biometric and location data, smart headphones could tailor music to moods and moments: heavy metal or dance music for the gym, ambient or modal jazz for the wee hours of the morning.
最後我們不要忘了耳機被設計出來的初衷。有了更強的環境感知能力、連接性和處理能力後，“智能”耳機也會改善人們聽音樂的體驗。比如有了生物體徵數據和地理位置數據後，智能耳機就可以根據用戶的心情和場合調整音樂——在健身房裏播放重金屬或舞曲，在子夜時分播放氛圍音樂或調式爵士樂。

“The way music gets consumed, we’re slaves to convenience. It’s always on the go, really low fidelity, high noise,” says Marko Plevnik of U.K. consumer research and technology design firm PDD. “It’s almost an add-on to another experience. If headphones can add extra poignancy or meaning to music. That’s a good thing.”
英國消費者研究與科技設計公司PDD的馬爾科o普來夫尼克說：“從音樂消費的方式來看，我們都淪爲了便利性的奴隸。音樂總是在放，但是保真度很低，噪音很高。聽音樂幾乎成了其他體驗的添頭。如果耳機可以向音樂添加額外的情感或意義，那將是件好事。”