Hearing Without Your Ears (feat. Jordan McRae)

Dec 21, 2022

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Today we’re re-sharing an episode we did earlier this year with Jordan McRae. Jordan is the CEO of Mobilus Labs and one of the inventors of MobiWAN, a communication device that enables users to hear and speak through skull vibrations. MobiWAN was one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Significant Inventions of 2021. As construction people know, communication on the job site is immeasurably important. It’s also often a serious challenge. Simple, concise communication can be the difference between life and death. Jordan talks us through the basic physics principles that enable bone-conducted vibrations to register in your inner ear. He explains that MobiWAN has found a place on drilling rigs, in refineries, and in manufacturing. He also discusses new applications they’re exploring within the medical industry, particularly in surgery, where monitors and masks create communication barriers. We pose some questions about bone-conduction communication, and Jordan patiently answers, drawing a parallel between this technology and MR (mixed reality). These headphones don’t totally bypass the ear, they just deliver the vibrations to the eardrum via bone rather than air. As you can imagine, noise-canceling capabilities are crucial to effective implementation of this technology in an environment filled with jack hammers, saws, and generators. Amazingly, the flesh and muscle that surround the human skull work as a surprisingly effective filter to exclude noise outside of the body. Eddie discusses the fact that this technology offers benefits in office workspaces too, where individuals might otherwise wear in-ear audio equipment and therefore have a hard time engaging in conversation with others. We hear the scary how and why of Jordan’s choice to explore this technology. After studying AI and ocean and space robotics at MIT and at Stanford, Jordan had a scuba-equipment failure that resulted in temporary lung damage. Reflecting on the situation, he found it unacceptable that he was unable to communicate with his fellow diver to ask for help. This gave him an excuse to innovate. Although he and Mobilus didn’t invent bone conduction for audio, they took the basic concepts and began to explore a new range of applications. For the first few years of Mobilus, Jordan actually had the title of inventor. He would observe, experiment, interview, and explore. Jordan walks us through the history of audio equipment and how little change there really has been. He also discusses the pride and satisfaction that comes with inventing something and seeing people embrace and build upon that. Our discussion wraps up with the questions Mobilus had to answer and how they settled on having both flexible systems that simply use Bluetooth 5.0 and more robust systems with a greater number of proprietary solutions. They work with clients to integrate existing platforms and systems, always looking for ways to improve the user experience. Megaphone Moment: Jordan wants collaborators. Mobilus wants to hear from people with boots on the ground and discuss how this technology can help them be both safer and more effective in their work. Here are a few resources in case you’re interested in learning more about MobiWAN’s bone-conduction communication:

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