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Wakefield Company Uses 3D Scanner To Make Custom Earbuds

BOSTON (CBS) - Finding a new set of earphones that actually fit, sound good and stay in place, can be a daunting task. WBZ business reporter Jeff Brown found a local company that will change the way you look at earphones and your ears.

Lantos Technologies of Wakefield has a dream:

"To build a scanner for digital 3D scanning of ear canals," says CEO Jeff Leathe. "Which no one in the world has ever been able to do."

And with a license agreement with MIT, it's become reality.

"And our first commercialization market is consumer audio," he says.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jeff Brown reports

And lucky for you that means new earphones.

"With this custom fit, of course, we can measure the diameter; we can measure the depth of your ear canal so we can build devices that will fit perfectly for you," he says.

And this is top of the line stuff.

"That sounds better than any earphone they will have ever heard in the past because it captures the sound, so you get true sound," Leathe says. "And you get a lower volume so you have actually some health and wellness benefits as well."

Leathe says with the digital scanner, "you can see your tympanic membrane if you want to for the very first time in your life."

You probably got to see it to appreciate it.

"That digital file that is created goes right our manufacturing facility in Wakefield."

The digital scan takes two minutes. The 3D printer makes the earbuds and they are in your hands or ears, three days later.

"This headset will sound as good as a $2500 in ear monitor that Taylor Swift might use, or actually does use, at a price point that is about a tenth as much," Leathe says.

The earphones carry the 'Uvero' label, and you can find the technology and the earphones at the Burlington Mall.

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