A pair of listening devices joined by a band across the top of the head and worn in or over the ears; also called earphones. There are six combinations of physical headphone features: circumaural vs. supraural vs. intraaural, and closed vs. open. When comparing these aural head-mounted displays to visual head-mounted displays, open headphones are like "see-thru" HMDs (MicroVision's are a good example) while closed headphones equate to occluded HMDs such as Virtual Research's "V8". A distinction is made between headphones which are worn on the external ear (supraaural), those which surround the ear (circumaural), and "ear buds" which mount inside the ear canal (intraaural). Open headphones have foam ear pads that rest on the ears or ring pads that surround the ears. Closed headphones, on the other hand, nearly always have circumaural ear pads See also "Closed Headphones", "Open Headphones", "Circumaural", "Supraural", and "Intraaural"
Headphones (also known as earphones, earbuds, stereophones, headsets, or by the slang term cans) are a pair of transducers that receive an electrical signal from a media player or receiver and use speakers placed in close proximity to the ears (hence the name earphone) to convert the signal into audible sound waves. In the context of telecommunication, the term headset is also commonly understood to refer to a combination of headphones and microphone used for two-way communication, for example with a mobile phone.