Sony announced a new research and development group called the Future Lab Program on Thursday, and a curious video gives us a glimpse of the initiative's first project. Referred to as "N," the prototype is a hands-free wearable that provides "a new way of experiencing audio such as music and sound, allowing the user to receive audio information without having to insert any object into his or her ear."

The video is pretty mysterious, featuring a women floating in water with earbuds falling off of her and disappearing into the black water. She's then transported to the top of a cliff overlooking a city, and we hear a voice talking about the weather and giving positive sentiments about the day ahead.

If you look closely, you can you see that the woman is wearing a Sony-branded device around her neck. It's a shiny white gadget that curves over her shoulders, but there's not much else we can deduce about it from this video. N is apparently a product that untethers you from the wired hassle of traditional earbuds. It doesn't fit into your ears either, instead transmitting audio for you to hear. The woman in the video seems to respond to the voice, saying "ready," so it's possible that N has some voice recognition features as well.

Other than the video teaser, there's no information known about N or other prototypes to come out of Sony's Future Lab Program. According to the press release, N will be shown off along with other prototypes at this year's SXSW Interactive Festival next week.