I was intrigued to see a lady at the crosswalk the other day wearing earbuds with thick tubing instead of wires. Googling it, I discovered they were "EMF free headphones". Apparently enough people think electromagnetic radiation in the ears is a problem that there are now dozens of these headphones on the market that put the driver half way along the cord, with tubes proceeding to the earpiece.
They also use a similar mechanism for the "get me out of here ASAP" panic button [0] that staff place in your hand and tell you to squeeze if required, all it does is detect a change in air pressure on the other end of the tubing.
[0] https://www.mriequip.com/store/pc/MRI-Non-Magnetic-Magnalarm...
This guy also has a post about the hierarchy of socks and underwear which resonated with me.
https://tomlingham.com/articles/an-unfortunate-hierarchy-of-...
Completely tangential story. A few months back I was getting an MRI. I stashed my belt, coins, keys, and phone. The machine started its clicking and thumping when I realized I had my wedding band on my ring finger. Immediately my mind raced to a video I once saw of an MRI machine propelling a fire extinguisher across the room. I braced for my finger to be torn off while I slowly took the wedding band off using only one hand. Luckily it stayed put through the whole scan and nothing happened.
One of my favorite ISMRM posters that I saw in Toronto years ago was titled something like "a low-cost MRI-compatible communication system". It was really well written and you had to look at the photos to fully realize it was actually two Dixie cups connected by a string.
High-end headphone brand Audeze recently made an electrostatic headphone that works in MRI machines.[1] No air tubes needed and much better sound quality (and much more expensive).
[1]: https://www.audeze.com/blogs/audeze-journal/press-release-fo...
I made the mistake of brining an episode of 99% Invisible to an MRI. The sound quality is so bad that you barely can't make out voices. It was excruciating to listen to something I could almost understand for that time.
I thought these were a nice idea when I had my MRI the other day, little did I know that I would barely be able to hear anything over the noise of the MRI machine. Ear plugs were better, kept out the noise of the MRI machine and let me drift into a trance.
Ok, interesting, makes sense. Next, explain to me why the MRI machine does not... take itself apart? In an MRI machine without a cover you can see all kinds of micro and macro machinery, cables, fans, plating, sensors, magnetrons, pulse transformators, gun drivers... Pretty much each of those parts would be pulled through the room and get stuck to the MRI machine if brought in individually, or am I wrong?
I must be from a different era because a cup and string was well known as a kid as a way of transmitting sound. This is a very similar process.
Ahh, memories. Roughly 20 years ago, I took part in a research experiment which had as its aim to figure out which brain areas were involved when a blind person reads Braille. TL;DR: They had a hypothesis, which was mostly confirmed. It happens in the visual cortex. Anyways, back then, MRI was still newish tech. FMRI wasnt used much in typical medical settings, but for research. As part of the deal, the MRI technicians did share a lot of gossip and random knowledge during the rather long preparation times. Long story short, this is when I learnt about the tubed earphones. And all the other mechanisms which were constructed to transport the braille strip wthout operating a real motor inside the magnetic field... Was almost worth the 4 hours of having to absolutely lie still...
So how do the microphones that you use to talk to the tech in the MRI machine work?
> I'm not allowed to have any metals or magnetic materials on me.
Loose or easily dislodged materials. My belt buckle was ok to keep on. Had to empty my pockets, take off my ring, metal piercings are disallowed.
You don’t want gobs of belongings piling up on your magnet, and you don’t want something large enough to pin the human between it and the magnet. The first scenario is quite expensive to rectify. The second is quite expensive, quite painful, probably fatal, and certainly traumatic.
These are popular with two-way radios, where they're called acoustic tube earbuds.
I'd guess the tube is longer in an MRI, though.
Interesting, sound kind of like a stethoscope.
I bought a kind of unusual type of headphone from aliexpress a little while ago, that essentially consists of an induction loop you wear round your neck and tiny magnets you put in your ear, I'm somewhat scared to try them out as I don't especially want them to get stuck in my ear.
Tangential, I saw an episode of House where he put a patient with medical implants into an MRI and they ran it for a few seconds till the burning was too painful. Was this realistic?
I haven't flown for many years; but I think I remember airline headphones that were connected to the seat-handle with a hollow plastic tube.
They were awful.
This is exactly how headphones on passenger airlines worked several decades ago, until about 1990.
So they work like a stethoscope.
Would they sound better if they used a liquid instead of air for the conduction?
What options exist for something superior? These headphones are awful
tldr it's a pneumatic tube like a stethoscope. these used to be used within aircraft as well for inflight entertainment.
>The only headphone tech that I was aware of or that I'd ever really considered
I guess I'm old now because this style of headphone was present on every model of passenger aircraft in the sky when I was a young adult.