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Remote Binaural Sensing Device

Remote binaural sensing device

Grab a few of your friends and using your mobiles, have a go at transmitting what you’re hearing to each other in different places.

Here’s the science bit: When we're standing in a noisy place, each of our ears hears a slightly different version of the sounds around us. This is because our ears aren't in quite the same place, and our head is in the way between them. Our brain uses these differences to figure out where individual sounds are coming from.

Instructions below

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Download kit Instructions for you to download and keep PrintPrint these instructions and get making!
  1. Give your friend two of the phones

    1Firstly, check you have all the required ingredients listed in the box above.
    Give your friend two of the phones, and keep the others.

  2. 2Using your two phones, call the other two.

  3. 3Your friend should answer both phones at the same time, and hold them to his/her ears.

  4. 4Take your phones and hold them to your ears, but back-to-front so the bits you usually speak into (the microphones) are facing away from your ears. Hold them so the microphones are the same level as your ears (higher than you'd normally hold a phone).

  5. 5Leave your friend in a quiet room and go somewhere noisy. Your friend should be able to hear not only what's happening around you, but where it is in relation to you.

Lets experiment!

  • Try swapping ears! Things on your left will appear on your friend's right and things on your right will appear on your friend's left.
  • Does it work with loud noises? Try walking down a busy street with cars whizzing past.
  • Does it work with quiet noises? If you're in a quiet room, can your friend hear where another talking person is standing? Get them to run around you making noise, or spin on the spot.
  • Try dancing around in a room with a stereo playing.
  • Left and right work well, but can your friend tell if a noise is in front or behind you?
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Time
10 minutes
Difficulty
Easy

Parental supervision required

Ingredients

Things you'll need to make this

  • 4 working mobile phones

    Most households have quite a few these days. You're only borrowing them. The owners will get them back in one piece!

  • A friend

    You've probably got lots of these hanging around!

Download instructions

Competition

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