Some FUTURE technology.. Cans you can shout at!

Well, headphones that will “duck” or reduce in volume/connect to the outside world via a microphone so you can hear.. IF SOMEONE CALLS YOUR NAME!!! Or, you can set up some triggers like car horns, or a beep of a crossing.. anyway, read on! This from Elan PR..
Currently, headphone block communication from the outside world and do not allow users to hear specific alerts that they need to hear (i.e. a person calling them or a train station stop tone)
HARMAN’s Headphones with Active Listening can identify specific sounds in your environment to put you in control of what you do and don’t want to hear. Examples include cycle bell and train announcement.
A smartphone app will allow the user to upload at least 10 triggers and 5 user names to a modified AKG N60 headphone see pic
The name sensitive headphones are one part of the HARMAN Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) concept. The main feature is an audio trigger which allows your headphones to listen for you so you know when to pay attention when someone is calling your name. Once the audio trigger is recognised by the headphones it automatically turns the music volume down to alert you to someone calling your name. This is great for office environments where workers want to use headphones to tune out distractions, but don’t want to miss when their boss is calling for them.
This technology is about 1-2 years away from being launched in a product.
How cool is that?
Here is a video


Looks pretty cool to me….