Parrot’s Zik headphones go pint-size for fitness folks

Last year’s release of the Zik 2.0 headphones found Parrot coming up with a new design for its user modifiable headphones that made the headphones smaller, but an even more pint-size pair could be out this year, too.

The new earphones take the Zik concept of a smartphone controlled sound device and makes it work for in a fitness capacity, essentially bringing adaptive noise cancellation to tiny pieces that go in your ear, and yet also wrap around your head to keep them fitted to your person as you run.

Looking at the design for the first time, you’ll probably think more of a stethoscope than a pair of earphones, but there’s more to this headset than just a couple of tiny speakers for your ears to listen in with.

The new headband design looks to hold the pair in place, which is useful since the last thing you’ll want to do is lose the music as you run.

Parrot is also keeping the fit close because of the inclusion of intra-auricular biometric sensors, or put in another way, sensors that stay within the ear to track your heart rate as you move, and sending more information to your phone about the path you’re taking, such as cadence and ground contact time.

As for sound, from what we understand, Parrot will continue to use the customisable driver and equaliser settings it is currently using in the Zik 2.0 headphones for the Zik Sport, with different sound profiles able to be switched on, while the adaptive noise cancellation will take advantage of microphones to let you control how much outside sound creeps into the headphones.

That means you could run in complete isolation, only listening to your thoughts and the music, or switch a “street mode” on and let the world come in through the Zik Sport’s microphones.

The software of the Parrot Zik Sport. It appears to be tracking heart rate, step speed, vertical oscillation, and ground contact time, but we also see options for equaliser and soundstage settings at the bottom.

Little else is known about this, but Parrot is planning on releasing this pair of earphones this year, and since Parrot has a history of releasing headphones in Australia, we suspect we’ll be a part of that roll out.

As for when, that is anyone’s guess, but we’re hoping sooner rather than later.