Slashdot Mirror

We need to remove the "directional speaker" from the system and instead add in an "Audio Spotlight" http://www.holosonics.com/ in its place. That way any people around the "noisy" person do not need to listen to the noisy person NOR the speaker echo system trying to make them stop. The "sound" would litterally be 'all in their head', and not for others to listen to. I heard this spotlight device back in the year 2000, and it was really wild listneing to music in your head that others next to you could not hear. You could litterally put voices in somebodys head and play with their mind with this thing.

My first thought was Big Brother is going to sterilize us all.

I admit that as I came to post this, I noticed that the story was tagged "ringtone" and now Slashdot collectively owes me a new keyboard.

The idea of creating a focused beam of sound is not new. What the article refers to as "putting voices in people's heads" really is more like aiming an audio source at them that is so narrowly focused that only they can hear it. The science behind this has been around since the first attempts at sonar, though the technology to make practical use of it probably hasn't been around as long. I remember seeing some program on PBS about some audio company (Bose?) working on this to create speakers in cars that would direct sound to a specific seat.

Read here for a fairly simple explanation.

That's not quite right. AudioSpotlight has been shipping similar products since 2000. Indeed, I saw them featured on Tomorrow's World in that same year.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000302223042/www.bbc.co.uk/tw/stories/technology/0001audiospotlight.shtml

The relevant part of the episode is still hosted by Holosonic.

http://www.holosonics.com/media/BBC_TW_AudioSpotlight_1Mbps.mpg

Their website also lists alternative applications..

http://www.holosonics.com/customers.html

That's not quite right. AudioSpotlight has been shipping similar products since 2000. Indeed, I saw them featured on Tomorrow's World in that same year.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000302223042/www.bbc.co.uk/tw/stories/technology/0001audiospotlight.shtml

The relevant part of the episode is still hosted by Holosonic.

http://www.holosonics.com/media/BBC_TW_AudioSpotlight_1Mbps.mpg

Their website also lists alternative applications..

http://www.holosonics.com/customers.html

Here's the Holosonics device that does it, if you care. It's a cute trick of nonlinear acoustics. This thing has been around for about five years, used for niche applications like narration in musum displays. But usually at a range of about a meter or two. I'm amazed that they can make the thing work at 15-20m.

They haven't been successful in getting the cost down or the quality up. Otherwise, it would have market share in hands-free phones and computer speakers, where such directionality would be really useful.

My guess is that it will be shut down as a public nuisance in NYC.

With the Holosonics Audio Spotlight, you can now make people think God is talking to them! Range from 20 to 200 meters. And the speaker is just a flat black disk about a foot in diameter.

It's really clever. It works by projecting audio as two ultrasonic signals, which produces a very narrow beam. You can't hear the ultrasonic components, but the difference between them becomes audible some distance from the speaker, because air isn't entirely a linear medium. Some museums now use these things, so that the recorded message for a display is only audible in a small area. We're going to be seeing more of these very soon; the price is about to drop.

So if you hear voices in your head, start looking around for 1' diameter disks pointed in your direction. Move around a bit; the beams are very narrow.

> Has anyone had a chance to play with one of these?

I saw a live demo of the Audio Spotlight (http://www.holosonics.com/)
here at work. It works on a similar priciple . . . The technology is
amazing .. . . .

Simple, install focused speakers in each viewing area. This outfit has some solutions and there are others: http://www.holosonics.com/

I want an aibo with a holosonic speaker to follow me around, listening to my commands. The ultimate speakerphone, mixed with the ultimate stereo, and voice UI. Good dog!

OK.

Now, if only someone makes multiple streams of sound riding on the same speaker...

How about hypersound?

I suspect that if they actually implement this, and it seems to work, there will be people somewhere behind the scenes running it. It won't really be automatic.

Rather than fooling around with PDA and WiFi crap, the Audio Spotlight technology would be much more effective for ghosts. This has real potential in retail: "The red one is perfect for you".

This was on slashdot before. The device was invented by a guy at MIT, and he's now running a company selling them commercially:

Holosonics (Audio Spotlight manufacturer)

Looks like there are several automotive companies using them, as well as lots of exhibitors and whatnot. Really cool stuff.

Hello, this is Dr. Pompei. I thought you would be interested in reading my letter to the Newsweek editors:

(Regarding story "Hearing is Believing",
http://www.msnbc.com/news/786016.asp? cp1=1 to appear in Newsweek, August
5th printed issue.)

The authors of "Hearing is Believing" achieved their apparent objective of presenting an entertaining portrait of Mr. Norris, but have failed their readers by not researching their subject more thoroughly. If they attempted to contact actual users of the technology (both mine and his) more than one day before their publication date, they might have had time to report more facts rather than Norris' fantasy.

For example, the authors might have learned that there does not appear to be a single, public installation of HSS anywhere in the world. However dozens of top museums, corporations, and venues have purchased and have been using Audio Spotlights for years. Also, they might have learned that about all that Norris seems to have invented in this field is the HSS name, since he essentially copied basic technology developed by competent researchers in the 1980's. After spending $30 million of other people's money, he has little improvement and no evidence of salable product to show for it. In contrast, I spent less than 0.3% of that as a Ph.D. student at MIT and have a fully functional system being sold and delivered to major companies and museums around the world.
(listed on the website below)

In these times of increased scrutiny of the honesty of CEO's, it is unfortunate that the authors did not take the time to fully investigate
claims made by would-be innovators, particularly those whose primary goal in garnering such publicity seems to be raising money from the
public. Surely, your readers deserve the whole story.

Dr. F. Joseph Pompei
Holosonic Research Labs, Inc.
www.audiospotlight.com