There are many earbuds on the market, but few of them aspire to offer many features beyond good quality audio.
Harsaa are noise-cancelling Bluetooth earbuds that include NFC and emergency messaging, and also track activity and monitor sleep. As part of its NFC tap-and-go sharing feature, users just have to swipe the earbuds over their smartphones to transfer any information they choose.
Users can also tap Harsaa to automatically change volume and other settings on their mobile devices. Harsaa can also be tapped to signal the user’s mobile phone to sound an alarm or send a message to friends and family in case of an emergency. It’s compatible with Android, iOS and Windows devices using Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0.
Harsaa ships in October at about $160. But Indiegogo backers can get one for a pledge starting at $99 for early birds. Its makers hope to raise $30,000 by May 8. How Harsaa sounds is anyone’s guess, but adding NFC is a simple and inexpensive add-on that a lot of folks — like iPhone users — simply aren’t using regularly. That said, the earbuds are waterproof, which means users can exercise with them on or even swim while wearing them.