We've all had the experience of speaking to someone on the phone and having their voice drowned out by the background noise. The problem is usually accentuated with mobile phones and public telephones which by their very nature are prone to this annoyance. Now these difficulties for mobile phones are largely eliminated with the noise-free headset I saw at the Computex trade show in June.

It looks like a conventional hands-free headset used by many heavy mobile phone users but instead of a microphone piece there is a strap that extends down to the users throat. The user has their voice vibrations from the larynx transmitted instead of the conventional passage of sound in ambient space. The result is a claimed 95 per cent of background noise filtered out.

I sampled its capabilities briefly in the noisy confines of the Computex hall and was impressed by its accuracy. The voice was only slightly robot-like in sound but there was none of the background hubbub.

In other tests performed with the review unit I found adjusting the headset to my own physiology was bit of a juggling act. Best effect was with the throat piece resting directly on the larynx which was very uncomfortable. There was little margin for error as placing the throat piece, or having it dislodged from the optimal position impacted on voice quality dramatically. The story was different again for women. The women who I had try the headset were almost inaudible so it may be an issue for females because of their physiology.

The PUC headset is actually two parts, the headset which is universal and the other being the adapter that fits your particular make of phone. There is no Australian approval or distribution office yet for the PUC headset so anyone interested will have to pursue it through the Taiwanese office.