Sunday, March 27, 2011

Earlobe Openings

Here's an idea I've been mulling over for a few weeks:

One thing I have noticed about people in the coffee shops is that there are quite a few that have wild and eclectic haircuts and many with tattoos and earlobe gauging. Earlobe gauging should be called gouging because it makes the earlobe larger. It has been a custom in some primitive societies to stretch parts of the body by inserting objects into openings, enlarging the openings gradually, and then putting in larger objects. Ear gauging is a variation of ear piercing, which makes a tiny hole larger and larger.

Personally, I am not a big fan of bodily immolation. I don't care for ear gauging or tattoos. It looks painful, and makes me cringe. Tattoos, because they are permanent and sometimes the content may be desirable at the time of application, but the tattooed may have a change in taste and be stuck forever defaced with images all over their shin. Because of these things, I usually get my coffee at the gas station nowadays.

But this is not about tattoos, it is about the ear gauging thing. When a person gauges their ears, they bgin with a pin, then insert a cone in the hole. The cone enlarges the hole, and they push it in farther and farther, until the cone goes all the way through. Then they put a disk in, which I have seen as big as a quarter in some cases. This actually can lead to a practical value for a loop of skin hanging from the bottom of the ear.

The disks I have seen are usually white or black plastic, and shiny. The do not seem to have any other function but to hold the opening open. Here's the practical part: Why not make something like a BlueTooth device, with a speaker in it? You could make a pair of stereo earphones that way, with no wires. They could have a jack for a very short single ear bud, or they could be designed so that the mass would be supported by the earlobe, bit part of it would be at the ear canal opening sending sound into the ear. A real advantage would be that the user could have sound but not have to cover the ear with extremal headphones or plug the ear with ear buds. Think of the safety ramifications of not restricting hearing while being able to listen to music! Wow!

Yes, well, I do get excited sometimes. This is my latest brainstorm, and I had to put it down on keyboard and screen before someone else thought about it. It's is like the app I thought up some time ago about turning the iPhone screen into a mirror. It would probably consist of a program that dims the backlight way down so that you could see your reflection on the shiny surface. I didn't think much of that idea, until I saw on the Internet, that someone else is making it.

Anyway, like other ideas I have had, this one is free for the taking, but if you use i and make money from it, at least mention where you found it. And if you are feeling generous, and want to take good care of your Karma, send me a few dollars. 5 percent is all I ask.

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