Doppler Labs Inc. has been teasing its Here One augmented reality earbuds since June, but it looks like the company hit a snag with its new product.

Here One was originally slated for a November release, but this week Doppler Labs announced that it would be pushing the launch all the way back to February. According to Doppler Chief Executive Noah Kraft, the delay is not due to any specific problems with Here One, but the company’s desire to thoroughly test the earbuds before producing them in bulk.

“We need to make sure that we can do this consistently across a mass market scale,” Kraft told The Verge. “And since we want to go to retail, and we want to do this right, I basically had to make the call.”

While the delay may be bad news for people who were looking forward to having their shiny new AR earbuds in time for the holidays, Doppler Labs has some good news as well. The company says that Here One will be able to offer exclusive AR listening experiences thanks to partnerships with several organizations, including the Coachella music festival, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Mets and others. These partnerships will allow Here One wearers to listen to play-by-play commentary and other audio content at these events.

What is augmented reality hearing?

Here One is essentially an earbud with a microphone on the outside that allows certain sounds through while intelligently filtering other sounds out. For example, users could listen to music while riding their bike but still hear car horns or other important sounds around them. Users could also attend a loud concert while still being able to carry on a conversation with nearby friends.

Doppler Labs had already been working on this sort of technology with Here Active Listening, what it calls its “concept car” for augmented reality hearing, but Doppler is far from the only company working on smart listening devices. While there may not much competition for AR earbuds aimed at concert goers on the market (yet), the concept behind Here One has already been in use in the military with devices like the Tactical Communication and Protective System, or TCAPS, which is developed by Invisio.

TCAPS offers soldiers protection against hearing loss from sustained gunfire or other loud sounds that occur in combat situations without impairing their ability to hear during moments of quiet. For example, soldiers wearing TCAPS could still carry on a quiet conversation while on patrol but be fully protected from loud noise if a firefight suddenly breaks out.

Image courtesy of Doppler Labs