Slinky Science Bionic Ear

by Slinky

Product Features

• Pick up sounds from nearly 300 feet away!
• Features include a parabolic sound collecting dish and backgroud noise reduction
• Headphones included
• 1 9V battery required, not included

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 4.5 x 12 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00168TQ28
• Item model number: 016000
• Manufacturer recommended age: 5 - 12 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,731 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #20 in Toys & Games > Learning & Education > Science > Physics
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Listen to faint and far away sounds with a range up to 300 feet! Includes background noise reduction that makes your hearing amazingly clear.

Product Description

Spies on secret missions won't miss a sound with Bionic Ear. Listen to even the most faint and faraway sounds within a range of up to 300 feet. Bionic Ear includes background noise reduction that makes your hearing amazingly clear. Requires 9V battery, not included. Ready to wear right out of the box.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best Bang for the Buck, September 25, 2009

By 

Nature Guy "Nature Guy" (In the Woods) - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Slinky Science Bionic Ear (Toy)

I had been researching various parabolic microphones online for awhile. I noticed the striking similarity in construction and design of this "toy" and the higher-priced ($50-$80) units sold under the Orbitor and Pro-Orbitor models. Well, you guessed right (if you guessed as I did), this <$20 "toy" is the very same device, just marketed to a different audience. The only difference is that instead of having a low-power spotting-scope for aiming, there's just an empty tube in this one. And on opening this one up, I found out that the chip to do the 10-second recording and playback (in the Orbitor models) are missing from the circuit board. That's all fine and well, because if you read the reviews both of those features in the higher-priced models that include them they are fairly useless or badly implemented.

I bought this to "tinker" with it for nature recordings. There have been reviews of the same device under other brand names claiming that directionality is lacking. This is not true. I find that for high-frequency sounds the aiming must be within about 2-5 degrees to the source. People also erroneously mistake the true frequency filter for a "volume" control. It is a variable cut-off filter to adjust how much "base" you want to listen to. There's good reason for this. Low-frequency sounds travel less distance with the same amplitude (energy) as high-frequencies, and lower frequencies refract and reflect much more easily around other objects. This is where this perceived non-directional problem comes from. If you filter out the low-frequencies using the tunable filter you can obtain rather good directionality and clarity on distant voices and sounds.

However, there is a bit of design flaw in this (and I presume all the high-priced Orbitor models), where the microphone pickup is situated. Unfortunately the access ports to allow the sound through the central microphone support column are cut too small. My Dremmel-tool and X-acto blades to the rescue. I enlarge the entry ports to the microphone and was able to greatly increase the amount of sound being focused by the parabolic dish. You can prove this to yourself by momentarily pointing the dish toward the sun and watching where the light is focused equally around the central support. The designers missed the mark on where to cut the access holes to let the sound through. If you're a tinkerer, go ahead and enlarge those ports to let more sound though. As it is designed I doubt more than 20% of the parabolic dish's surface is being put to use. You can increase this to a good 80% or more with careful modification. Just be very careful to not nick or cut the wire leading the the microphone.

If you hunt around on the net you can find this available for under $20 with shipping included. And with a little modification, you'll have a highly directional parabolic microphone that is better than the $50-$80 models (made by the same company, same components, targeted to adult prices).

One more thing, the lower price also means lower-quality headphones. No problem. We all have dozens of higher quality ear-buds laying around from our MP3 players and other things by now. Use a set of those instead. The sound quality and useful gain will vastly improve if you do.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun to Use, January 7, 2009

By 

J. Reisch (Trafford, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Slinky Science Bionic Ear (Toy)

I got this for my son who is into "spy toys". This Bionic Ear works really well! You really can spy on conversations from a distance. The toy even picks up soft sounds such as whispers. Be careful on what you talk about when your kid is using this toy!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, February 26, 2009

By 

Dan Z "-dan z-" (Northeast Tennessee, home of the free) - See all my reviews

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slinky Science Bionic Ear (Toy)

Works pretty well for an assembly of cheap plastic pieces. The box says it has a "scope" for pinpoint aiming. This is actually a large hole in the base that you look through, and is totally unnecessary. The unit just isn't directional enough to require careful aiming.

The box also points out the "sensitivity control" for adjusting the "sensitivity/volume." The instruction sheet says this is a frequency control to help eliminate background noises, and that is how it seems to work. There is no volume control. Oddly, turning towards "low" makes it more sensitive to high frequencies, and vise-versa. It is pretty sensitive to wind noise, and has a fair amount of hiss at all times, due I presume to the inexpensive electronics.

Suggestion: use better headphones. The ones supplied do not fit flat to the ears, and are not adjustable for that. They will never fit a child well, seemingly being designed for "fat heads."

I am going to use it for listening to bird sounds.