Hood.e saves your hearing, eliminates distractions

I don't think designers know how to deal with the earbud concern out there. On one hand, you have designers who try to create ways to manage your earbud's wires, and on the other hand, you have designers trying to completely remove earbuds from the equation to eliminate distractions and hearing loss.

Tim Dubitsky falls squarely in the second category. Core 77 featured Tim's prototype design called Hood.e, which he created for his young nephew. It appears his nephew walks a dangerous route to school, so Tim wanted to free him from earbuds that block out street sounds. To do this, he embedded a pair of speakers into the hood of the sweatshirt that plug straight into his nephew's music player.

Hood.e is still in a concept stage, but it's possible it could go into production in the near future if enough people ask for it. After all, Think Geek turned a speaker shirt (meant as an April Fool's joke) into a profitable product after being inundated with thousands of emails.

I like the idea, but I doubt something like the Hood.e would ever take off. I think it's perfect for people walking down a noisy street or riding a bike, but I doubt people on the subway will want to listen to your music. What do you think? Is this something you would wear?

In all seriousness folks, protect your hearing. A while back I wrote about ways to prevent tech-related hearing loss, but really, the best way to avoid hearing loss is by turning down the volume. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says loud noises above 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss, so please, turn it down a notch.