????隨著蘋果公司（Apple）斥巨資收購Beats公司，耳機(jī)一夜之間成了消費(fèi)電子科技行業(yè)的焦點(diǎn)。其實如果你了解得更深入一些，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)耳機(jī)從來沒有走遠(yuǎn)。

????我們一直把耳機(jī)的存在當(dāng)成天經(jīng)地義的事情，甚至忘了我們正把它塞在耳朵里或掛在脖子上。早在“可穿戴”這個詞指的是晾衣桿上掛著的襯衣的時候，耳機(jī)就已經(jīng)是真真正正的“可穿戴”之物。自從智能手機(jī)發(fā)明以來，它就忠實地把智能手機(jī)里的信息傳遞給我們。盡管如此，耳機(jī)一直處于可穿戴科技浪潮的邊緣地帶，直到蘋果公司以30億美元的高價收購了Beats，這種現(xiàn)象才得以改觀。

????蘋果對于這筆交易依然保持著平日的低調(diào)，很少提起這次次收購究竟是看中了Beats的人才（如創(chuàng)始人杰米?艾歐文和Dr. Dre）、技術(shù)，還是別的什么東西。蘋果CEO蒂姆?庫克只是說他有多么愛音樂。不過在接受《財富》（Fortune）采訪時，一些耳機(jī)設(shè)計和生物計量研究領(lǐng)域的頂尖專家表示，耳機(jī)的能力遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不止是作為聽音樂的工具而已。

????過去幾年來，科技愛好者們無不對可穿戴技術(shù)感到癡迷，健身腕帶、智能手機(jī)和模樣古里古怪的智能眼鏡等可穿戴設(shè)備也層出不窮，為的都是讓用戶能更輕易地獲得關(guān)于人們自身和周邊世界的信息。至于耳機(jī)，由于消費(fèi)者本就對它十分依賴，這也就成了耳機(jī)在可穿戴市場上競爭的一張王牌。

????耳機(jī)廠商Monster公司創(chuàng)始人兼CEO、Beats公司首席音響師李美圣稱：“耳機(jī)是第一款大范圍被人們接受的可穿戴設(shè)備?！盉eats公司更是把高端耳機(jī)變成了連說唱歌手、搖滾巨星也趨之若鶩的時尚配飾。

????人的耳朵恰好也是獲取生物計量信息的好地方。從很多方面來看，要想測量人體的健康信息或是實現(xiàn)可穿戴設(shè)備的健身功能，從耳機(jī)著手應(yīng)該是比時下流行的智能腕帶更合理的選擇。傳感器設(shè)計公司Valencell的耳部生物測量專家史蒂芬?勒伯夫指出：“我們能從耳部測量出的信息要比身體其它部位多得多。”比如血壓、心率、心電數(shù)據(jù)和身體核心溫度等，尤其最后一項，很難通過腕帶測定。耳機(jī)更適合監(jiān)測人體健康的另一個原因，則是現(xiàn)在很多人早已習(xí)慣每天戴著耳機(jī)了。

????通過把人體的生物體征數(shù)據(jù)與其它傳感器相結(jié)合（比如GPS、加速計或者一個先進(jìn)的聲音處理單元），耳機(jī)還能夠提供更多的妙用。比如音響設(shè)備制造商哈曼公司（Harman）的技術(shù)總監(jiān)I.P.帕克說：“大家的耳機(jī)能分辨出我們到底是在騎自行車、打獵還是打高爾夫。根據(jù)現(xiàn)實情況，耳機(jī)或許還能為我們提供一些特殊的功能和服務(wù)。”

????With Apple’s acquisition of Beats this year, headphones have suddenly become a focal point for the consumer technology industry. If you look closely, though, you’ll realize that they’ve always been there.

????We take headphones for granted. We forget they’re jammed in our ears or hanging around our neck. They were “wearable” back when the term meant the shirt at the top of the laundry pile. They have been feeding us data from our smartphones since smartphones existed. Yet they have remained at the margins of the wearable tech rush. Until Apple’s $3 billion buy, that is.

????Apple AAPL -0.61% , as the company is wont to do, has said little about whether its acquisition was driven by talent (namely co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre), technology, or something else entirely. All CEO Tim Cook seems to talk about is how much he loves music. Yet in interviews with Fortune, leaders in headphone design and biometric research say that headphones have the ability to be much more than mere private audio listening devices.

????Technophiles have spent the last couple of years obsessing about wearable technology—things like fitness bands, smart watches, and funny-looking glasses intended to give the wearer easier access to information about themselves and the world around them. For headphones, their pre-existing normality may be smart headphones’ ace in the competitive hole.

????“Headphones were the first mass-accepted wearables,” says Noel Lee, founder and CEO of headphone maker Monster and the lead sound engineer for the original Beats headphones. Beats took that normality a step further by turning high-end headphones into fashion accessories fit for a rock or rap star.

????But ears also happen to be great sources of biometric information. In many ways, headphones are a more logical place for digital health and sports functions than the electronic wristbands currently in vogue. “You can measure a lot more at the ear than at other parts of the body,” says Steven LeBoeuf, a specialist in ear biometrics at the sensor-design firm Valencell. That includes blood pressure, heart rate, ECG, and core body temperature, which is particularly tough to get from a wristband. Headphones may also be better at health monitoring than wristbands because putting them on is already a part of many people’s daily routines.

????By combining biometric data with other sensors—GPS, an accelerometer, or an advanced sound processing unit—headphones could become a new kind of performance enhancer. “[Your headphones] could figure out if you’re cycling, or hunting, or golfing,” says I.P. Park, CTO of the audio device manufacturer Harman HAR 0.80% . “Based on the situation, maybe there are features and services these headphones could provide you.”