????比如當你騎自行車的時候，你的耳機可以自動讓你在聽音樂的同時聽見周圍汽車的聲音，這就解決了安全與聽音樂之間的一個大矛盾。獵手可以通過專門的耳機區分獵物的聲響與噪聲。足球運動員戴的耳機可以過濾觀眾的噪聲，放大隊友的聲音。這對西雅圖海鷹隊的“第12人”或者其他震耳欲聾的粉絲團將是個沉重的打擊。當然，它也可能將成為體育官員們要應對的一個棘手的問題。

????微型化技術的發展使得如今的耳機差不多已經可以實現上述所有功能。比如布拉吉公司（Bragi）最近生產的一款Dash無線耳機小到可以塞進耳孔，卻同時搭載了一些生物測量傳感器、一個微型話筒、藍牙裝置和4GB的存儲空間，真是麻雀雖小，五臟俱全。帕克認為，隨著LTE和Wi-Fi連接普及到小型電子設備上，無線技術對于未來的耳機來說將成為司空見慣的事。

????另外，生物計量技術可能使耳機在游戲界的地位變得越來越重要。比如勒伯夫所說的“放松游戲”可以利用聲音的反饋對用戶進行訓練，比如可以讓一個聲音患者進入放松狀態。另外，勒伯夫還認為，在不久的將來，我們說不定可以利用耳機的生物測量功能來玩傳統游戲。比如說在一款需要生物體征反饋的游戲中，如果你想從布魯斯?班納變成綠巨人，你就必須真的生氣才行；或者在某款社交游戲中，根據用戶本人的健身效果，游戲里的人物形象也會被賦予不同的外觀。

????音樂使游戲雖然能讓人上癮，但是智能耳機的功能遠遠不止于此。它能使聲音成為一種信息服務的基礎，發揮出我們難以想象的效力。斯派克?瓊斯在2013年的電影《她》（Her）中描繪了主角與他的人工智能助手之間的親密關系，而他們之間的溝通就是僅僅通過一部耳機。哈曼公司的帕克認為這一點非常有預見性。“耳機將成為一個重要的信息中心，就像今天的智能手機一樣。”

????不過他補充道：“但是要發展到這一步，還有很多工作要做。”包括進一步推動語音識別與應答技術的發展。“有多少人用谷歌的Google Voice當主要界面？它必須要100%的精確。”同理，對蘋果的Siri也是一樣。

????不過，不管自然語言處理技術發展得多好，一套成熟的智能耳機界面恐怕還是離不開語音控制與手勢控制（手勢操作可在耳機外殼的觸摸板上進行）。另外，大家也可以通過頭部運動進行輸入，比如將頭擺向一邊就可以切換到下一首歌。

????帕克認為，智能耳機最能大顯身手的時候，是受環境驅動、而非受指令驅動的時候。他暢想道：“根據你所在的地方，所處的環境，”未來的耳就機能夠預估用戶的需求，提供相應的服務。比如在博物館里提供導游服務，或是在一座新城市里標出地標建筑等。

????最后我們不要忘了耳機被設計出來的初衷。有了更強的環境感知能力、連接性和處理能力后，“智能”耳機也會改善人們聽音樂的體驗。比如有了生物體征數據和地理位置數據后，智能耳機就可以根據用戶的心情和場合調整音樂——在健身房里播放重金屬或舞曲，在子夜時分播放氛圍音樂或調式爵士樂。

????英國消費者研究與科技設計公司PDD的馬爾科?普來夫尼克說：“從音樂消費的方式來看，我們都淪為了便利性的奴隸。音樂總是在放，但是保真度很低，噪音很高。聽音樂幾乎成了其他體驗的添頭。如果耳機可以向音樂添加額外的情感或意義，那將是件好事。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：樸成奎

????For instance, when you get on your bicycle, your headphones could automatically let you hear the sounds of nearby cars through your electronic dance music, solving one of the major conflicts between safety and enjoyment for cyclists. Hunters could use specialty headphones to separate game noises from environmental sound. A headphone worn by a football or soccer player could filter out crowd noise and amplify teammates’ voices— a serious blow to Seattle’s “12th Man” or any other deafening fan bases, and a potentially thorny issue for sports commissioners.

????Miniaturization has already nearly made it possible for headphones to pack in all that capability. The recent Kickstarter project for Dash earbuds, a wireless pair of earphones made by a company called Bragi, already cram some biometric sensors, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 4GB of storage into a device meant to fit inside a user’s ear. Park predicts that wireless technology will be typical of future headphones as LTE and Wi-Fi connections spread to smaller electronic devices.

????Biometrics could also make headphones even more central to the gaming world. There’s what LeBeouf calls “relaxation gaming,” which would use sound feedback to train a user, such as a therapy patient, to enter a relaxed state. LeBoeuf also imagines using headphone biometrics to affect play in more traditional video games. A biofeedback-enabled game might require you to actually get angry to transform from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk, or a character in a social game could be given a different appearance based on the users’ own fitness.

????Music and games may be the gateway drugs, but smart headphones could also make sound the basis for information services of a sort we’ve never seen before. Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her depicted a close relationship between a user and his artificial intelligence-equipped personal assistant, who interacts with him only through an earpiece. Harman’s Park thinks that’s prophetic. “Earphones or headphones are going to become major information hubs, just like smartphones now.”

????“But,” he adds, “a lot of things have to be done along the way.” That includes pushing voice recognition and response technologies much further. “How many people use Google Voice as their dominant interface? It has to be 100% accurate.” The same thing goes for Apple’s Siri.

????Still, no matter how good natural language processing gets, a full-fledged headphone interface would likely combine voice with gestures through touchpads on the headphones’ surface. Input may also come from head movement, such as nodding your head to one side to skip to the next song.

????Smart headphones would be most useful when driven by context rather than command, Park said. He envisions headphones able to anticipate and provide for a user’s needs “based on where you are, based on the current context of your situation. We call it augmented hearing.” That could include things like providing a tour of a museum or describing landmarks in a new city.

????And let’s not forget what headphones were originally designed for. With greater context awareness, connectedness, and processing power, “smart” headphones could enhance the audio listening experience. With biometric and location data, smart headphones could tailor music to moods and moments: heavy metal or dance music for the gym, ambient or modal jazz for the wee hours of the morning.

????“The way music gets consumed, we’re slaves to convenience. It’s always on the go, really low fidelity, high noise,” says Marko Plevnik of U.K. consumer research and technology design firm PDD. “It’s almost an add-on to another experience. If headphones can add extra poignancy or meaning to music. That’s a good thing.”