Slashdot Mirror
Focusing Audio
Alien54 writes: "The fine folks at the MIT Sound Media Lab have come up with a cheap and practical way to focus sound: "A beam of light can be controlled in many ways - it can be aimed at one person in a crowd, spread to fill a room, or projected to create rich, distant imagery. We can now do these very same things with sound. The Audio Spotlight can be used in two major ways: As directed audio, sound is directed at a specific listener or area, to provide a private or area specific listening space. As projected audio, sound is projected against a distant object, creating an audio image. This audio image is literally a projected loudspeaker - sound appears to come directly from the projection, just like light." While still under development, they are testing applications of the device in collaboration with several of their media lab sponsors in preparation for eventual commercial release."
All very interesting, but the information seems to suggest a bottom-end frequency response of a few hunred Hz. The figures, at least, seem to stop at 400Hz.
Now... 400Hz is quite high really. For the musically inclined, concert A is 440Hz. Off the top of my head that's significantly higher than the fundamental frequencies involved in, say, male speech. Until they can get that extended down to somewhere closer to 150Hz (remember - this is logarithmic so one octave is a doubling / halving of frequency) I would think there will be difficulties in using it.
Nick.
PS - Did anyone count the number of `TM's around the place!!
SpotSpeaker?? Or AudioSpot???
Maybe I should register audiospot.com now.
Why is there only one Monopolies commission?
Dude, you sound like your stoned or something.
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
Invasion of privacy? Get real, you are in a public place that is owned by another person/business, you have no privacy.
If they want to film you shopping to help them with product placements to maximise sales and profits, that is their right to do so.
Grow your own food in your backyard if you want privacy about what food you eat.
--- Can i borrow your Clue-Stick(tm)? I need to go beat a few people with it...
>first, the stockholders of supermarkets aren't >necessarily "bourgeoisie". You can be A >stockholder, too; just buy some stock. And it's >possible for a supermarket chain to be entirely >owned by individual small investors like you. >And the chain would still practice sleazy >marketing practices; so, I don't see how there >is a class war at work here.
:)
Okay, we're really going off topic here, but c'est la vie
Well, IANAM (I-am-not-a-marxist), but from what I know from studying their thought some, they would explain this as a cornerstone of the 'class war', since the reason that individual small investors buy stock, is so that they can get a monetary return on their investment, so that they can be richer; eventually joining the 'Bourgeoisie' if they are fortunate and or shrewd.
------- Oh damn.... the Sigfile escaped... -Great OM
(also, most amusement parks have stagnanted (ooh, a ride!); see the begining of 'house on haunted hill' for some of the new shit they're doing)
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
Never heard about the clockwise thing, and now that I think about it the larger supermarkets I frequent have entries in the left side of the store, so you move clockwise. The produce is near the entrance, and the frozen food is on the far right end. The "impulse" buys are near the counter of course, but now that I think even further about it I almost never buy anything from them. I wouldn't read too much into marketing research; they come up with some pretty wacky stuff.
And slashdot has reduced me to writing about where the produce in my local supermarket is. Please, someone moderate me down as off-topic. I need it.
--
The precision we could have surround sound with this?
Six speakers? Phhhhpt! I have a sound laser creating speakers wherever they're needed out of my specially treated walls!
Perhaps A wall with tiles that can vibrate/move independently from one another?
Gfunk
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
That's incredibly unlikely. Firstly you have to have almost no will whatsoever to actually have this affect you in any way. Also you have to understand that even for the human subconciousness connect to the waking mind requires a great deal of personal training and the like (I've looked into it).
The internet has breed a great deal of loonies who have found a bunch of other loonies who have absolutely no education in matters of science and the like and who don't have a very firm grasp on the validity of various theories. Logic contradicts a system that cannot be proven and there are a great many assumptions that are in this. Firstly the sound wave would have to be in a subvocal level which prevents you from actually perceiving it. Secondly when it's down that low you have to rely on a really sucker like Homer Jay Simpson to actually fall for it. Remember the studies back a number of years ago about putting subliminal messaging into advertising in the movies? Ever wonder why it dosn't seem to work absolutely (last time I checked I went to a movie there was a very obvious and very non-subliminal series of messages that I *could* see that were offering various drinks/candy/popcorn that blows that little idea out of the water really quick).
Many people like to think that you can simply train people like Pavlov's dog and you just cannot. Human will would have to be about as low as a mental patient locked up for 20 years to get this to work.
Even then it would only manifest itself as a possible desire and not as something that could easily be grasped in any traditional command and control sense. You would weed it out and then use your higher sense of logic to get what you needed. The American consumer is one of the most informed in the world when it comes to getting the most for the buck. Magazines like Consumer Reports and the like insure this.
Respond to s
According to the description of the device they use ultrasound in the millimeter wavelengths, this is in the hundreds of kilohertz. So your dog will not go insane, fido can't hear over 35kHz. These high frequencies are also attenuated rather rapidly in air.
The coupling of these frequencies from the air to your body is also extremely poor. Compare this to a medical ultrasound that uses very high levels and is in direct contact with your body with gel to improve the impedance match.
This definitely requires further study, but I wouldn't be too concerned about safety.
----
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Audio Image (TM). That's nothing. If MIT had their way, they'd also own Computer Science (TM) and Linguistics (TM). It must drive the Media Lab (TM) nuts that they didn't invent the world wide web.
__/\__
|\ / * \
| X < (O===8
|/ \______/
http://vagina.rotten.com/fish/
You think drugs make the people more powerful? Forget it. Even the painkiller my dentist gave me removed from me about 1/4 of my self-control.
Mastery of self is power, not abuse of self.
Be nice to your friends. If it weren't for them, you'd be a complete stranger.
An American whistleblower and an advocate for the human rights of all, I have never used or advocated violence, nor has any state or nation ever charged me with a crime. Nevertheless, because of what I believe, say, and write, what I know and have tried to communicate, I have seen nearly six thousand days of surveillance, defamation, persecution, terrorism, mental torture, and more, for which society denies recourse and law provides no remedy.
In 1984 and 1985, I blew the whistle on civil liberties violations involving persons at my workplace and corrupt police, prosecutors, and intelligence agents. The gangsters, government and "private," whose crimes I had tried to reveal invaded my privacy, slanderously attacked my character and reputation, impugned my sanity, assaulted me with radiation and bio-chemical weapons, killed my dog, and tortured me with electromagnetic weapons. They forced me out of my job without due process, wrecked my car, broke up my marriage, drove me into exile, violated my rights abroad, and thrice conspired to coerce my return to this benighted nation. Thrust from prosperity to poverty, from health to disability, from dignity to disgrace, I am left alone in the company of hard, sad, frightening truth. Yes, this happens here in the birthplace of modern democracy. Behind an angelic facade lurks a satanic reality, an America that pursues its critics with a fanaticism unsurpassed by any Iranian mullah, mobilizing the community in such harassment of targeted persons as the Chinese experienced in their Cultural Revolution, aping the defunct Soviet Union in its use of psychiatric evaluations as instruments of intimidation and discreditation, circumventing due process with a disregard of Constitutional liberty and human dignity frighteningly reminiscent of Germany's Third Reich.
Many have warned that the marriage of fascist mentality and Twenty-first Century technology may produce a monster most hideous. The perspicacious Dave Emory, an American researcher and broadcaster, has stated that in the absence of positive change we may soon face "the total world triumph of absolute evil, forever." From the deep virtual dungeon of my personal experience, I thoroughly agree and boldly bear witness.
The mock democracy that has cheated, persecuted, humiliated, terrorized, and tortured me is really a "national security" dictatorship, a land surreptitiously controlled by an insolent overclass contemptuous of Law and Constitution, using astounding technology to advance an essentially fascist agenda. It is a vicious, capricious empire, the domain of drooling Caligulas whose unchecked malevolence enlists the aid of legions of cowards, crooks, liars, and fools. It is a culture of contempt, where personal attack supplants rational debate, where artificial distinctions abound while valid ones are ignored. All is arbitrary here. Everything is relative. Law, ethics, and very reality are defined to suit the nefarious purposes of those in power. My America is holographic, virtual. The faces that pretend to rule, the stentorian voices that speak to and for the people, the flags that flutter so high above our heads, are just as unreal and unreachable as those guiding principles now buried beneath heaps of self-interested rhetoric and pervasive apathy. The pretty, pithy phrases that so enthralled me in my youth -- "a government of laws, not of men," " the equal protection of the laws, " inalienable rights," "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- echo hollowly now in my ears.
An intangible Berlin Wall surrounds my America, an invisible Iron Curtain. I left my native land three times, seeking political asylum in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium. In corruption and cowardice, those enlightened nations thrust me three times back into a virtual hell from which I can no longer even hope to escape. Virtual America, through its very palpable power, has spawned Virtual World.
I am a non-person, ignored or rejected by all, frustrated in my every earnest effort to obtain effective advocacy and justice under law. Define me now as an anti-American American citizen. I have become an enemy of the United States, not by any primal intent or plan of mine, but by the inhuman designs and machinations of my government these many years. One cannot love a government that abuses the human rights of its people and assiduously avoids accountability, that rewards selfishness over service, that abandons principle and enshrines expediency.
I see my government now attacking the poor as it has attacked me, stealing the liberties of others as it has mine, punishing victims while rewarding scoundrels. I see the people unaware, numbed, somnambulating. Hobbled as I am, there is little I can do to help. So isolated am I that I cannot even obtain information about United Nations human rights complaints that date back to 1991. I have voted three times with my feet. There is nothing here that makes me want to stay. Were I well enough and wealthy enough, I would surely shake from my soles the dust of this cosmically disappointing and dangerous place.
As an individual, I am no more important than all the other brave souls of earth -- most of them enduring far greater pain than I -- who may be considered Prisoners of Conscience. The significance of my circumstance lies in the power, contumacious attitude, and tyrannical intent of those who oppress me, and, as well, in my utter abandonment by those persons, organizations, and governments who carry the standard of decency and humanitarian concern. My experiences bespeak a serious breakdown of those systems -- state, national, and international, public and private -- that are supposed to control abuse of public power.
The sad reality is this: in practical terms, there is no United States Constitution. Those who really rule here are not elected by or accountable to the people. The Bill of Rights is contingent, circumstantial, virtual. What has happened to me -- much more than there is room here to tell -- can happen to anyone. Human rights, human liberty, security of mind and body, and the very concepts of dignity and decency may be lost forever.
I appeal to all who read this to hold my nation, as well as the European states against whom I have a cause of action, fully accountable under the international human rights agreements to which they have freely assented. Throw open the curtain. Let in the light. I have dignity, integrity, and intellect. Let them be recognized. I have charges to make. Let them be accepted and investigated. I have truth to tell. Let it be heard and understood. Let Virtual America actualize itself. Let Virtual World come to its senses, while there is still time.
Raves are all about having a place where people aren't judging you on every little thing you do, how you look, dance, dress, or talk. They are a place where geeks can have fun and not be judged by people with nothing better to do than worry about what's cool.
Please don't take your troglodytic views to any raves. Raves are a beautiful thing, don't ruin them by making them another place where coolness is the concern, not happiness.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
The idea was to create a "fart thrower," a flashlight sized audio device that could throw pre-sampled and newly sampled sounds across a classroom.
I followed up with Media Lab about this possibility and at the time (summer 1999) they were predicting two more years of development before it was commercially viable. Mattel wanted a toy for Christmas, so no go. Oh well- short sighted (sounded?) American business strikes again.
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
Uhm, wasn't there a Crackmonkey list thread about this? Something about 7hz? The C source that was posted contained this comment: /* Emits a 7-Hz tone for 10 seconds.
True story: 7 Hz is the resonant frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.
This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory
generating 7-Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch:
When the factory started up, all the chickens died.
Your PC may not be able to emit a 7-Hz tone.
*/
This is of course a blatant invasion of customers' privacy. It is none of my supermarket's business what I look at, for how long, how quickly I walk through different aisles, the route I take inside the store, etc. This is why I shop only in small markets-- only there will you find a respect for the dignity of human life in this modern world of impersonal, eploitative Albertson's stores.
;)
Don't you think you're being a little melodramatic? Consider: The stores aren't interested in you, specifically. They're watching traffic patterns in their store, looking at which products and marketing techniques tend to grab attention and keep it, etc. I'll grant you that small markets are more personal places; that's generally true of any establishment. But let's not confuse marketing research with Big Brother. They have no way of tracking you as an individual.
Except maybe through your Safeway Club Card.
The concept is sound.
There definitely was a "sonic drill" article a few months back. It had something to do with the particular shape of the focusing chamber (I don't remember the shape, was it bell-shaped?) defeating the formation of shockwaves. These were explained as the primary loss of energy during the creation of a high energy directed sound stream... It might have been in Popular Science. Still, this is supposed to be much better in terms of control.
GPL: Free as in will
You could really mess with someone with a personal size one, make someone hear shit no one else could hear.
scary.
I'd like to have one mounted on my car. Then, when one of those "boom-box cars" rolls up next to me, I'll point my sound cannon at the driver and burst his eardrums.
The most interesting aspect is that you can now do without headphones in public places; for example, talk-show hosts will no longer need those annoying security-men-like mini-headphones they wear.
Think about international committees (like UN sessions, for example): no more need for headphones. Each ambassador will get his own personal translation "beamed" directly to him. How convinient!
- Tal Cohen
Let's say the president of a corporation is giving a speech at a banquet. A disgruntled employee decides to have some fun -- so he brings along his Audio Spotlight and aims it at the president, playing his favorite Hitler speech, while at the same time using another Audio Spotlight aimed at the audience to cancel out the president's actual voice, so that the audience hears nothing but Adolf at his best...
kugano
With this technology, I could play QIII with Earth Shaking Subsonics and blood curdling explosions, and A) Not wear headphones while B) not disturbing my co-workers.
Yay!
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
If you'd take a look at most European economies, you'd see how a mostly free economy, regulated only to prevent the corporations running rampant and to run (fund) good public services, can exist without being oppressive, "Russian" or communist.
And the existence of public services does not mean that private entrepreneurism has been eliminated. For instance, in many countries public healthcare, or in one of your dirty words "socialized healthcare", exists but that hasn't prevented private hospitals and clinics from prosepering. On the contrary.
I'd say a system where you can start up your own business and at the same time remain relatively free of fears of "losing your shirt" if you fail, encourages more entrepreneurism than a cut-throat, do-or-die capitalism. Knowing that you can apply for state help in paying your debts, getting housing and healthcare encourages people.
The article states that the power consumption is similar to conventional speakers.
What if you could reverse this effect, creating virtual microphones with a focused array of microphones. Today you can buy simple array microphones intended for desktop use (from Labtec, for instance), but imagine if you really could have "spotlight" microphones of the same accuracy as these speakers...
This system won't be subject to the law you suggest for traditional loudspeakers. Since it uses nonlinearity in the air, you can't make a direct relation between them, but... Sound generation frequency range is directly linked to the size of the 'virtual antenna' you create using ultrasounds, and this size is limited by two phenomena : diffraction and attenuation. So to lower the cutoff frequency, you have two solutions : limit the diffraction of the ultrasonic beam (i.e. increase the size of the transducer) or increase emission level to counteract attenuation (i.e. you reduce sensitivity), so the problems are the same, but for very different reasons!
Do these MIT speakers kill bugs? Do they cause dogs to howl and cats to hide under the couch? The parallel to a spotlight is apt- it's not safe to look directly into a spotlight.
Reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon...
"Are you an idiot?"
"No, I'm an engineer. Common mistake."
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
Good idea, but I don't think it could be useful for such an application : To achieve active noise canceling in a volume, you need to create a wave with the same wave vector (i.e. that comes from the same direction) with opposite phase. The proposed system does not provide a flexible way to modify this wave vector. Sound generation happens in the axis of the transducer, so the direction of wave can't be modified. Traditional loudspeakers (and A LOT of signal processing ) provide better flexibility : an array of loudspeakers allows you to create the wavefront you need.
Oh please give me a break. As a informed member of the public who actually knows history I say you are really, really, really stretching it big time.
Ok for your information this can be seen in any number of old publications I suggest the major ones from the 1920's and before. In particular the Ivory soap compaign which was essentially a false one. They advertised that their soap was in fact incapable of sinking in a bathtub of water. There was a well known political cartoon of the day (I believe in the New York Times) which was entitled "The day a cake of ivory sank" which depicted a great deal of confusion and shock that it did indeed sink.
Take note of the first ideas and usages of choclate cocao which said it was a good medical aid and that it could be used to regain health. Of course it was a blatant lie and almost everyone knew it.
The very idea that this stuff actually defrauds people is silly and overstated. I have a relative who actually works in the higher ranks of a food distribution company who does this stuff. It's only marginally effective in getting more money in anyone's pockets. American consumers who are likely to be defrauded are usually the first people to do their homework and go for the biggest bargains using cupons, special deals, shopping around, etc.
Marketing is only effective as you make it. As I have pointed out in other posts here the one true constant in the who affair is the fact that people are not stupid and eventually figure things out. Once they figure out that they were gyped they usually learn their lessons and get the cheaper product. It's at worst a trial and error process that works well most of the time.
If you are making broad reaching claims I was hard evidence that the problem is as bad as you claim. Like many slashdot posters you are full of gloom and doom because you perceive a problem but offer no plausible solutions to actually solve it in any convincing way at all. It's really rather funny if you think about it.
In fact repeat the folling mantra over and over again at least 5,000 times a day (lotus position completely optional):
"There are no effective conspiracies; the world is not out to get me. I am not Fox Mulder and never will be."
That will keep you sane. Also I would recommend to subscribe to the psycho-ceramics mailing list and then you can laugh at your fellow kooks, loons, and irrational, uninformed idiots who believe everything is a conspiracy. My personaly favorite was the one about the (then) Soviet genetically engineered woodpecker like radio device that was trying to match resonance pitch inside the human skull for slow torture/death. Rather a funny little thing.
Respond to s
Line of site conversations? Across-the-room whispers? Let's get a wrist-watch sized transmitter...
That would explain why nobody hears those voices that order me to kill.
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__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
At the very least, you could mess up the targeting systems with excessive vibration.
Tesla was doing things like focusing sound decades ago. He caused a couple of minor earthquakes with it too....
The concept is sound. I just wonder how long before we'll have high-powered sonic drills, like in the sci-fi movies.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Now, the problem is this: air isn't very non-linear. So, to get a watt of audible sound, they are going to have to push, ohh, say 10 watts of ultrasound out of the speakers. One watt goes into sound, nine goes into heating of the air as it absorbs the ultrasound. Just what I want at the next (already smoky and hot) concert I go to: a megawatt of heat being added to the air!
Hmmm....
www.eFax.com are spammers
I'm sure I remember reading about this in one of the major science-for-the-masses magazines several months ago.
Still, its an interesting idea. Anyone got any ideas for a really good use for this?
Intolerant people should be shot.
I meant acting theatres, not movie theatres, but I suppose both could get the same sort of use out of them...
Not to mention, I don't give this too long before enterprising rave promoters start using these things. Right now there's a lot of use of stereo tricks in different sorts of techno, but I can hardly imagine what you could do with this sort of setup.
Of course, it'll likely be a while before speakers like these are made with the sort of power you'd need for it to be practical in a rave.
Or, how about hands-free phones that don't even need headsets - they just project the sound to the area around your head only.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
Could I use this technology to blame farts on other people?
Damn! I just got Dolby 5.1 and now I have to upgrade again!
Atleast this should make placing speaker on the wall a lot easier.
Putting bass transducers under seats or on floor joists will take care of the rumbles below 440Hz.
These are very cool little disc-shaped transducers that are starting to get affordable
Strategically placed, directionality does not seem to matter in the lower ranges (at least for me).
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.--Quayle
Been there, done that...
We called it the 'Weirding Way'
Hehe, this will blow away 'Geeks with Guns', literally.
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
Further to your these greate points,
I'd ask the leading question "which came first
acid-like filters in photoshop
or acid?"
Essentially, does our technology allow us to envision new things?
~OR~
Do drugs inspire new these new technologies?
And if these technologies could be considered to be analogous to a psychoative drug then how does that tie into the notion that evolution of conciousness throughout all organisims and throughout the history of humanity has been through the mechanism of consumption/use of 'psychoactive' substances by these organisms.
I.e. whatever molecule that caused some tarsir to 'get a little high' and modify it's conciousness over 100 million years ago which eventually lead us humans as the (socalled) peak of conciousness and
could lead to a future computer-created reality that is just as
psychoactive.
Too much MAPS for me!
Oliver's Law: Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Marketing will have a field day with this. In grocery stores, each aisle will have secret messages aimed at areas to suggest you buy certain products (maybe even aimed lower, for the kiddies).
How long will it be before satellites can beam down messages to whole geographic areas?
This is not new at all. American Technology Corporation already has such a system called Hyper Sonic Sound (HSS). Their site also shows that they have filed for patents as early as July 1996 (first patent allowed August 1998). I hate to break everyone's excitement, but the other thing about this company is that they don't manufacture anything themselves: they only license the OEMs (at least for HSS). It is interesting to note that one of their current contracts is to implement and test HSS technology for use on Navy Ships. I first heard of this technology about 5 years ago, to be honest, I don't know why more hasn't been seen of it.
a crowd of WTO protesters... (with a low-frequency beat wave) to zap individuals. Yeah good idea! hit the protesters with a BEAT WAVE and get them all to dance! It should be hard for them to destroy starbucks stores when they are shake'n their bootys!
There is a company that is already licensing products using the interaction of multiple high frequency inaduible waves to produce focused audible sound.
remember that game? the atreides had sonic tanks, with what looked like a satellite dish on top.
they werent the best weapons (no armor) but nice attack
i think red alert 2 might bring those back on the side of the allies
and while i'm offtopic, i'm not sure how useful it would really be to start a resonant frequency in a tank... given earplugs for driver/gunner just how much damage could it do?
shaolin punk, activist post-industrial
as for weapons, maybe an ultrasonic version could be developed to guide attack dogs to a specific target in a crowd, similar to the way radar was used to guide German bombers in WWII. (though a single radar signal wasn't directional, the net effect of 2 or 3 signals was)
or an ultrasound version could be created as a tripwire (break the line-of-sound, alarm goes off)
should we be patenting before posting?
-f
-f
www.blackant.net
I saw this last year on Tommorows World. They thought it could be used on a dancefloor, to focus the music on the couple dancing, not blast it all over the ballroom. Think of having several couples dancing to different music. Or maybe advertisers focusing the adds on just a few people. And I guess it would be better than a loudhailer, you could say whatever you like and only the listener woudl get it.
It does work but I don't know what they're talking about when they say "nodal points."
Here's how it's actually supposed to work: you wear headphones with a realtime DSP built in; the DSP tracks what is going on around you and calculates a sound that is 180 degrees out-of-phase with it.
A very simple example: if you had a sine wave being produced in the room, it would generate another sine wave that is at an amplitude of -1 when the external sine wave is at an amplitude of +1. These two amplitudes cancel each other out, and you get an amplitude of 0.
Strange I remember seeing this story on tomorrows world quite a while ago. So I decided to check on their web site.... And found this story dated the 12th January 2000: Sound Beam
It's good to see that Slashdot is there on the cutting edge of technology ;)
Having said that, the sound beam did sound pretty cool but when it was reviewed in January. It had some problems with serious bass noises, but would be a wonderfull invention for clubs where the dancefloor could be loud, and still have quite areas to chill out and actually talk to people (no there's a novel concept).
Manic Miner.
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
Having not the slightest idea what country and what area you live in I am going to make some big assumptions about you:
1. You live in a town of at least 100,000+ people
2. You live in the USA
3. You have multiple grocery stores
4. at least one of the stores in item 3 has in fact some ability to have lower prices than the others.
With this these conditions met you have to realize a few falacies. In principal ther is very little alternative to capitalism that dosn't really royally screw the little guy. If you look at *history* you see that every stinking revolution, war, brawl, battle that was ever fought for the cause of the common man was in fact a cause that tghe common man never really got a fair shake in. American revolution? Nope the revolution was actually fought and actually started by a group of wealthy arrogant American tea merchants who didn't want the British dumping low priced goods to the Americans and actually give them much cheaper tea. The Russian revolution of 1917 in fact was nothing but a farce "Bread, Land, and Peace" didn't help the millions of starving Russian peseants who still got screwed like they did under the old system the Czar had in place except they got the random political pruge and their leaders thinking they were in complicity with the "evil" rich (how they equated farmers with the rich I don't know)
Communism is a total flop in almost any country that uses it. Basically the little guy gets, screwed again, and again, and again. In fact the US is the fairest when it comes to helping the little guy not loose his shirt or tax the hell out of everyone or make them wait in long, long, long lines for 5 hours just to get a couple of bruised potatoes before they can actually eat anything. A system which supports lazy people and industrious people and pays them the same damn wage and then productivity suffers and everyone looses. Look at the construction of the ISS and the recent Russian addition. Ever wonder why it took so long? Well the most recent addition was given to the Russians to work on their own whereas the rest were basically used with the Russians as consultants not the sole contractor. They fubbed that one up royal.
I don't make a whole hell of a lot of money but I don't wish to go into communism where there are still rich administrators and even more of my money is gone.
Grocery stores are not in the business of stealing the bread before it gets to you in any way. If you don't like the grocery store that you shop at go to another one and shop there. In may area alone There are at least 3 large grocery stores that sell anything that you need. In fact 2 are in walking distance from my home. And yes I must admit one of them does gouge the people but if they do they start to loose their customers and they go to the other store which is happy for their business. Then the store changes that particular policy and then gets some customers. Basically there is something called elastic and inelastic demand. Food is inelastic for the most part for the necessities but we usually we have choice. The more speciality items that are the focus of most of the marketing research (like nacho flavored cookies or whatnot) are elastic and if it's done improperly they loose and it's all over.
Respond to s
Furthermore, there are situations (most notably, the Nazi regime) where millions of educated and intelligent people became entranced by the illogical ravings of one man. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that thoroughly intelligent people were completely oblivious to the truth (even though it was quite obvious).
Of course, I don't think advertisers are quite this skilled; but still, things like this can happen.
Actually, we really made our mistake in 1944 (I believe I have that date correct). Ho came to the US and asked for help in negotiating a peaceful settlement with France. The US government pledged their help. However, for some reason (I don't remember what it was), the US Army *liberated* French POWs and gave their weapons back to them. As far as Ho was concerned, he had been betrayed by the US and by democracy in general. *This* is what really turned him against us. If it hadn't been for this, things might have gone much better.
I'm not an audio expert by any means, but isn't audio below a certain frequency nondirectional - rather, the ear isn't really able to percieve the direction without some higher frequency information along with it? Consider the subwoofer, which can be placed nearly anywhere in the same room with the rest of a system.
:-)
I'm getting well over my head here, and this is quite possibly a load of something, but perhaps some sort of modulation in the 'beam' combining with a separate carrier at a proper frequency could create the information which otherwise couldn't be transferred. Since the directional information doesn't need to be there, it wouldn't matter that it's the product of two sources.
Again, I have to disclaim this as possible total BS - I don't have a clear enough understanding of how it works, but it seems that something like this should be doable considering the rest of what they've accomplished
GPL: Free as in will
Additionally, where do you get the idea that removing 250-400 Hz band wouldn't be noticible? The lowest note on a piano has a fundamental frequency of ~27 Hz!
What well-respected audio company got it's start at MIT? Bose!
Is Bose a sponsor in this effort? The audio projection trick sounds a lot like Bose's bouncing audio off of walls and the like. And Mr. Bose is a grad of MIT.
If this is the case, I'm unimpressed.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Then, there are basic questions of philosophy. This realm of discovery is almost all thought experiment, and can actually lead to new discovery in the physical realm.
Furthermore, never discount the ability of "untrained" laymen to learn and comprehend.
The smaller stores don't do the research, but that doesn't mean they ignore the findings of the research.
Next time you go to your favourite small market, pay attention to how many left turns you make versus how many right turns. You'll likely find the store is set up to encourage you to walk around the store counterclockwise. That's because one of the findings of these laboratory supermarkets is that people are more comfortable if they make a lot more left turns than right turns.
Also, the snack foods, chips and stuff they want you to buy on impulse, tend to be placed along the leftmost aisle, so you come to it last and have less time to reconsider and put it back.
Don't ask me why this is, but it's one a them thangs. I wonder if the opposite holds true for left handed people...
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
And I also wonder how on earth they can use this with John Coltrane if the lowest frequencies are "in the hundreds of Hz". Seems kind of useless for music to me.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Which is why Nike is a zillion-dollar company right now, even though their shoes are no better than what you can get for half or less the price.
It's called disinformation that's what. It's not subliminal messaging in the least. It's lieing pure and simple. It started with Jabul "Honest" Wakkiem the salesman of pots in Summeria and it's going on today with Nike except Nike has more money.
Which is why Nike is a zillion-dollar company right now, even though their shoes are no better than what you can get for half or less the price.
That's different how from saying that Joe Domagio endorces this product or service. Still not a conspiracy and still not subliminal it's an entirely misinformed opinion. People have done that since the 1920's or even earlier. Check out an archive of old newspapers and look at their advertisements the same old stuff.
There was a study a while back (Sorry, no links or references) that found that users of expensive athletic equipment (mostly shoes and cleats) actually injure themselves more often and worse than users of cheaper stuff. People with cheap equipment didn't have as much trust in their equipment, so they exercise some caution. People who have spent four or five times the money think they must be getting much better protection, so they play more dangerously. Of course injure themselves more, because the more expensive shoes are no better than the cheaper ones.
So I would (if I didn't know better) think that if I paid more money for something that it should at least work better. It's just a little misplaced logic. That dosn't qualify for conspiracy status quite yet. You have to have the unexplained concept or the hard to disprove little kernel of doubt. I don't see it.
Fact is, the extra money they spent doesn't go toward making better shoes, it goes to putting Michael Jordan's name on the side of the shoe. And that's what sells shoes.
I have no beef with that. Most people in most industries in the past didn't give a shit about their products until people got irritated and the laws were eventually changed. See the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act under Teddy Rosevelt.
Respond to s
Could someone please help me buy one of these for the guy in the cube next to me!?!?!?! ..
If I have to hear Limp Biscuit one more time . .
No.
Consider: The stores aren't interested in you, specifically.
No, they're not interested in me, or in any other of their customers, as anything more than a guinea pig to experiment on so as to manipulate their behavior for the benefit of the stockholders, and the detriment of the customer. This is a problem.
And it also neatly gives lie to the religion of the "invisible hand of the free market". Those economic actors who have the most power use their power to deform the free market, not only by distorting the information available to customers, but also by manipulating their behavior.
They're watching traffic patterns in their store, looking at which products and marketing techniques tend to grab attention and keep it, etc.
Information which they plan to use to rip me and millions of others off at a future date. Information is crucial to waging war; the class war is no exception.
But let's not confuse marketing research with Big Brother. They have no way of tracking you as an individual.
Their objective, again, is to manipulate us, to control us. My interest in preserving my privacy in this case is the same interest a country at war has in keeping its sensitive information secure.
that used to be in the helpfile for borland C++ v2
/*
*Not a Sermon, Just a Thought
*/
*Not a Sermon, Just a Thought
*/
... Sennheiser Electronic demo'ed a prototype of a speaker with the very same technology earlier this year at the annual meeting of the german Acoustical Society (Dega). So this is not really groundbreaking news...
;) )
It's strange actually to see someone move the 'speaker' and you can hear the sound source moving through the room...
If you look very closely, you can see the speaker here:
http://dega.itap.de/netz/d00_45.htm
It's only a view from the side, though (N.B. the speaker is the flat silver thing that doesn't look like a speaker
just my 2 ningis
While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.
were drugs introduced into our society in order to prepare us for the emergence of technologies that would simulate heir same effect?
Yes exactly. As a matter of fact, I am the intelligence behind such an operation. I personally manipulated the DNA of the first hemp plants to ensure that they would produce THC. The actual process of fermentation, that was me too. It really just involved fucking with some yeast. Of course, then I introduced it to man, in the forms of mead and wine, long before recorded history. I also did LSD (at least, I did the real work behind it. In fact, you name it, I put it here, so your feeble little minds wouldn't explode when you saw a laser light show.
Believe me, before I altered space-time, the Disney light parade was an absolute killer.
(Yes, of course this post is sarcastic. My user number is far too high to have been able to do that stuff...)
--
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
Ya ever gone to make a presentation with your handy portable computer projector, and used a white wall because no screen was available? It seems that this would be a practical extension--mount a sound projector on the normal projector, and you bounce the sound off the wall, as if it's the source.
Why is this cool? Added realism--the sound is coming from the image itself. You get an instant-setup movie-theater, where traditionally the speakers have been behind the screen. Portable video conferencing, with the audio coming from the person talking...yow!
My only concern is that it only goes down to "a few hundred hertz" currently. Gotta lug along a subwoofer (but at least that sound is basically non-directional anyhow, right?) for strong quality sound.
c.f. Eric Cartman finding the "brown note" and rewriting the sheet music for the world recorder meet. Kenny G and Yoko make the world go apeshit...
Also, wasn't mark mothersbaugh (sp?) of devo fame looking for this note?
They also have them at a CD store in the mall near my house. But, I wouldn't say that is the same thing as what is being researched at MIT. It sounds like it's different in concept, or at least scale.
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Can this technology be used to cancel noises as well as generate sound?
I am thinking that current noise-cancelling technology seems to rely on headphones, since noise is generally omnidirectional. But if this technology were used to determine the direction of the noise source, and shift phase of sounds so the sounds appeared to be coming from the same direction, then one might not have to use headphones.
For example, in a cubicle there are noises all around, from telephones to people talking, and it would be extremely useful to be able to selectively tune out the noises and work without headphones. Currently, I believe "noise cancelling" area systems just generate white noise, which doesn't fix the problem, only create more.
The lower bass tones could be handled in an area system, I think, because they wouldn't be so directional.
I mean, doesn't the world suffer from increasing amounts of "noise pollution" as machines proliferate in our increasingly urban environments? Many people including myself would love to be able to take action to control this environment for ourselves and filter out the annoying noises. A much better use than increasily annoying sales pitches beamed directionally at us without any choice.
Do I even need point out the possibilities opened up to the pranks industry?
Projected flatulence sounds real and produces real and embarrassing results! Use with "Flatulence Spray" (Item #4827)
I can't wait . . .
Love, Stu
Forgive me, but aren't stores laid out clockwise above the equator and counter-clockwise below?
Canada and France are two examples of countries that have had socialist governments on and off for years. But these are not Communist countries. There's a big difference.
Please re-read that sentence. Then read it again. Repeat as necessary until what you just said sinks in.
--
Is it schizophrenia or directed sound?
Mom, I hear voices. Voices inside my head.
Billy! Get off the garage roof with that spotlight thing, and stop pretending to be your dead Grandma! That's creepy!
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
Can you name a country that has/had a communist economy and a democratic sytem of gevernment? Likely not. Perhaps what you're noticing is not the failure of communism, but that of despotism. No one seems to use Indonesia as proof of the failure of capitalism.
Few people know this, perhaps especially not in the U.S.A., but between the Viet Min ousting the French from Vietnam and the Viet Cong uprising/N. Vietnamese invasion, there was a free election held in South Vietnam. In that election, The communist party won.
The Commies looked like they were going to respect democracy - there was no reason to think there wouldn't be another equally free election in four or five years' time. You might have thought this would be seen as a good thing, or at least not as terrible as a despotic communist system, in the States. Not so.
In fact, the potential that the world was about to see that capitalists didn't have the monopoly on democracy and free elections scared them silly. The democratically elected communist government was almost immediately overthrown by the U.S. army and replaced by an utterly corrupt puppet regime. Had this not happened, there would have been no violent revolution, and the U.S. would not have been involved in Vietnam's affairs in the first place.
There were plenty of autocratic/despotic communist systems around for them to overthrow, but the one they were worried about was the one that was democratic. Perhaps this has something to do with why everyone says "Communism has proved itself a failure the world over." The U.S. was careful to interfere whenever communism looked to be in danger of working.
So, what we have here is an elite of politicians and super-wealthy lobbyist types, manipulating world politics, plunging millions of people (who don't matter because their skin is yellow) into misery and oppression, so that their own subjects (hey, there's that darn vocabulary of oppression again) won't realize that communism does not necessarily entail oppression. I guess that birngs us back to the original point - Information is crucial to waging war; the class war is no exception.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
And Ken... Stop jerking off. - Real Genius
.02
My
Quux26
My
Quux26
www.crashspace.net
It already is in stores. Turn up the sound system, and people are too stunned to consider their purchases, and realize how shoddy the workmanship is, or how outrageous the price. The advantage here is that you could keep the customers numb, without stupifying your clerks.
I'm serious. I worked at a department store for a while, where they kept the "background" music loud enough that it took the foreground, and the merchandise was basically in the background. There were lots of people who worked there who were intelligent, interesting people outside (we had lunch in the park across the street). Inside the store, we all turned into idiots though, employees, managers, and customers, because it was too loud to think.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
Was this the technology the Vogons (sp?) used when announcing the imminent destruction of the Earth?
you could really fuck with somebodys head if they were in a large group:
::Matt hides behind tree, points sound projector at unsuspecting victim::
::Person hears voice inside their head "Hello bobby, You look mighty fine in those jeans..."::
Who said that?? Who the fsck said that!!
::Everybody starts to back away from that Person and makes a dash for their cars::
Another successful mission.
"Your pen is bugged..." "How do you know? " "This is an action thriller"
A simple law of speaker design is: 100Hz cutoff, 1 cu.ft volume, 100dB efficiency. If you want half the cutoff frequency, you need 8 times the volume, or you can trade off 9dB less efficiency. This is rather rough but it works for pretty much every speaker I've applied it to. If the Audio Spotlight is still subject to this law (I think it is), it would imply that getting below "a few 100Hz" would involve extreme efficiency losses or making it impractically large.
Producing a conventional small speaker capable of producing low frequencies at high efficiency is impossible. If you want lots of bass or lots of efficiency, it has to be big. Whether or not nonlinearity of air is a property that allows you to "cheat" is a good question, because the air no longer acts like ideal gas. The simple answer of coupling it with a separate sub would defeat the purpose as it would no longer be directional.
I'm interested to see if ultrasonics is the answer to the age old quest of compact bass reinforcement, but until that is demonstrated I doubt the practical use in hi-fi and PA systems.
I wonder how small they can make the technology. Imagine if you could mount one of these things on your collar. You could have personal listening without headphones. How 'bout point to point walkie talkies. With a hand held model you just point and talk. I think the truck idea is a really good use. Also, if they could be made small and light enough to mount on a moble platform (like cyberlights do with spotlights) you could move a speaker onto any surface.
Of course the real question is when can I get one?
Now they have a way of ensuring only one person can listen to a CD... get rid of all that illegal listening by friends/family in the same room/building....
I don't think the satellites are going to be very effictive at audio. You'll have to use airplanes.
Another interesting application might be to create a device that would allow one to focus music to a handheld or peripheral device where it is converted to MP3 format.
Perhaps the next version of Napster is on the horizon.
>Information is crucial to waging war; the class war is no exception.
...
>Their objective, again, is to manipulate us, to control us. My interest in preserving my privacy in this case is the same interest a country at war has in keeping its sensitive information
>secure.
Let's not exaggerate this.... You're not at war with these grocery stores. No one can make you have any dealings with them whatsoever. The only reason they exist is to provide a service to consumers. Yes, they might be ripping people off, but obviously people feel they are useful or no one would shop at them. If they were really so dangerous as you say, their entire reason for existence would vanish because no one would actually shop in them. There is no way a store is going to "manipulate" you.... You always have the option of avoiding them. But stores depend upon consumers for their survival; they certainly are not at "war" with them. It is in their best interests to keep customers happy.
Matt Reece
The point is, your experiences are no more or less real based on what caused them. As many societies have understood, certain plants and chemicals can be catalysts for certain kinds of profound experiences, just as music, love or prayer can.
Everything we see and eat and feel affects our mental state. The idea that your experiences are more "real" than someone's who realizes something while on lsd is just silly. What matters is the experience, not where it comes front.
An experience is an experience and a realization is a realziation. Nothing is any less profound because of how it brought about.
Many people have had there lives changed for the better by these things. They are not something to be taken lightly or belittled.
See Salon's recent article on spiritual use of substances.
yup!bass is omnidirectional,thus hiding my position,but thanks for caring ;)
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Anyhow, as the laws of acoustics dictate, to generate such a low tone at a moderate amplitude, you need a very large object. The french government used modified jet engines.
It's not terribly practical for war. Bullets are easier, and cheaper (think power).
There were cold war devices that generated high frequency sound to disturb people mentally, instilling feelings of paranoia and in extreme cases mental breakdowns (temporary of course) that I believe got bad enough to cause vertigo. There are some products I believe out there that use this principle for self-defense.
The high-frequency method started in Nazi Germany, with Hitler using it for mind control. They'd have a very high frequency sound in an auditorium that'd make everyone uncomfortable, and then when Hitler entered, they'd stop the sound. Operant conditioning at its best. you need a very large object to reverb
-bugg
Focus and amplify the sound beam down to a pinpoint, and run pulses of very low-frequency sound through it. That'd be a pretty damn devastating weapon.
-Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
I was talking about the class war. Hell, I wrote precisely those words: class war. Here, I'll write them again so you don't miss the chance of seeing them: class war. Yeah, I know it's sort of a cuss word in the face of the massive capitalist propaganda you have been through, but there is indeed a war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie own supermarket chains, and I don't; my relations with the supermarket chains are indelibly shaped by these material circumstances. Is it clear enough now?
The only reason they exist is to provide a service to consumers.
No. The customers are the means to make profit for the stockholders. They are not the end of the stores.
obviously people feel they are useful or no one would shop at them.
Cut the euphemism. People shop at them because they would rather not starve. Calling this "people feel they are useful" is a rhetorical trick to sanitize the exploitation they represent.
I'll look for this on my Acme catalog.
--
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Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
I've seen the guy who invented this on TV a while ago. At parties in his office building he would stand up on balconys and 'beam' the sounds of glasses smashing to the waiters below.
Now all we need now is an umbrella with an mp3 player and one of these attached to it... then wait for a rainny day.
callum
Just go watch the classic movie "Real Genius". It contains the most obvious application of this technology...
Kent? Kent? This is Jesus, Kent...
Except now it doesn't require knockout gas and dental work!
You too can add a little something extra for the trick or treaters this year... or simply play the theme from "pee-wees playhouse" out of a
OK, here's how you do it: This is a pretty well-known technology that has been around since ultrasonic transducers were first made commercially available. The pictures and stuff are misleading, so ignore them.
The Electronics:
Take two ultrasonic transducers, and modulate them so that the resulting interference (a difference signal) is the signal you want to reproduce. This is enough information to reproduce the effect for anyone who understands what a carrier is. You can do this with op-amps (in circuitry) using normal SSB modulation techniques (in the UHF audio range), or you can pretend that you have a unique academically induced entrepreneurial vision because you realized that DSP (digital signal processing) would allow you to do it better.
Whatever. Because most ultrasonic systems have a fixed carrier, you'll need to be able to do pulse width modulation in order to get data in and out of the system. The easiest way to do this is to simply gate the carrier signal by finding the output of the modulator and inserting a nand gate or comparator to feed your PWM signal in.
Don't expect high fidelity without DSP, and even then, it'll be less than .MP3 quality, better highs, lousy lows... But you could pretend you work for *the man* and grab an infrasonic subwoofer to make your projected voices a bit more old testament. Nothing like a subsonic field to give people the willies!
The Mechanics:
Think shotgun (or tube) mics in reverse. You can align the two transducers visually. The stuff I've seen involves either parabolic dishes (like the old edmund scientific big ear toys) or tubes (like the building center PVC and hacksaw variety), but with ultrasonic transducers instead of mics.
Here are the rest of the important building blocks:
You should think about triangles, with a sensor at the two base points. Figuring out how to aim the beam isn't hard - in fact, you can simply run the transceivers almost in a straight line.
You should know that the reason it works is because you're creating pressure field variations around the ear(s), so use power appropriately- it gets absorbed quickly with ultrasonics. Remember those pictures of sound waves traveling through air, water and wood? That's what this is.
Think about bats and echo-location, or wave patterns in the ocean. Or simply ask a physics teacher about "super waves", or a synthesiser player about adding sine waves. Dirt Simple. The effects work well when you have a wall to bounce things from. You'd be amazed at the amount of information one can pick up from the literature about "folks who hear voices..." - some of them are engineers who decided to see if they could replicate the effects through normal physical means in order to learn how to control it. Pretty Scary stuff. The only voices I have to put up with tend to belong to angry customers.
The incredibly lazy reader with cash to burn might want to simply buy a couple of ultrasonic communicators and hook them to the left and right channels of their stereos and experiment with playing metallica against their neighbor's windows. This technology is about as hard to master as a felt tipped pen. By the way, before you decide to try and annoy the neighbors, keep in mind that some people tend to express their anger in slightly less subtle ways- I'd hate to read about some poor geek having his transducers extracted from his lower GI tract simply because the annoying neighbor was a bit smarter than originally assumed. Play Nice!
isn't playing Quake an escape? isn't listening to the dead an escape?
Whether it's an escape or not is besides the point; whether there is a "higher meaning" to the buzz is also besides the point. More to the point is a comparison between the effects of drugs and the effects of these new technologies. It reminds of that quote - "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic" - can we safely s/magic/drugs/ ?
-f
-f
www.blackant.net
Forget about ad potential, can you imagine standing at a street corner and hearing, "THIS IS THE VOICE OF GOD! Surrender all your material goods to: xxxxxxxx" Hehe. I guess it has good prank potential too. ;-]
Alex Bischoff
Interested in building a roof over your cubicle?
---
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
The British Lynx military helicopter, that is! :)
They used a plastic envelope that, when inflated with CO2, assumed the shape of an ordinary convex lens a few feet across. It would focus the energy from a normal loudspeaker into a narrow beam, so that verbal messages could more easily be passed to troopers on the ground. "He's behind that bush!" sort of thing I suppose.
I don't know how well it worked - prolly not as well as this new technology - and I don't know if it is still in service. But I saw video of the system in action on the British TV news nearly 20 years ago.
I wonder if it could also be used as a weapon. Stun people with an amplified blast long enough to subdue them.
Wow, image one single speaker that projects an complete dolby or THX surround system.
hell, you could even reconfigure it to do stereo, dolby, thx or whatever depending on the music/ movie you're listening/watching.
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Wow, just think of the ventriloquist act I could have with this technology... Look out Howdy Doody, here I come!
I've heard of this about some months ago on tv on Tommorows World. They did some interesting demonostrations.
One was whispering in somebodys ear from a few hundred feet away to freak them out.
The other was to play the sound of breaking glass aimed at the floor beside a waitress carrying a tray of stuff.
Jeez the pranks you could do with one of these... i want one!
The link the article about it on bbc is here
Cool, so now you can direct sound at a specific target. I can see it now.
[Cut to The Terminator's point of view as the target is being acquired ]
Arnold: Hasta la vista, baby!
[ The terminator pulls out his gun, aims, and fires]
[ Poor victim falls to the ground as extremely high volume Britney Spears fills his head]
Poor Victim: argghhhhhhh!@#!!
[ Poor victim's head explodes ]
Arnold: I'll be back...
This belongs in everyone's technomage toolbelt. "Pay no attention to the voices in your head"
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
...is that we're one step closer to a holodeck =).
Using this as a "sound cannon" or to pipe "the voice from above" into someone's head (anybody remember Real Genius?) is amusing, but as I see it the killer app is building this into cell phones so that when one rings at a meeting you don't get 10 people simultaneously clutching at their pockets, backpacks, etc.
"Biped! Good cranial development. Evidently considerable human ancestry."
It's quite unlikely that anyone would be stupid enough to actually use such a thing mostly because of liability converns. If I don't want to hear your stupid advertisement I shouldn't have to hear it period. If you keep bugging me it's harassment. Plus there are various...countermeasures that can be done to render it impossible to actually get these frequencies into your ear. For example a modified hearing aid would be able to filter out all non vocal transmissions or non approved transmisisons and then drop all others.
Respond to s
Do you actually have any proof that Tesla actually *did* any of these things at all. Most likely if this was practal it would have found industry use decades ago. What about lasers? Lasers are far more efficient in terms of exactitude and work well and are in fact working *now*.
Respond to s
If it has no negative long term effect on your mind body and soul?, yes. It it doesn;t distract from your energies and where you want to go in life? yes.
To the best of my experience with drugs of many kinds, no such "magic elixor" exists.
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For home audio 250Hz or so should do. Since below that our directional sense decreases. So what you whould need is 4 beam-speakers and a subwoofer that covers the low end. The woofer can be placed anywhere sinse you can't here where it's at anyway. Now for those cheapo systems that people buy, you could probably skip 250-400Hz and people whould probably not hear the differace :(
FRA: STFU GTFO
Hey you over there. Yeah you with the red dress. Come on up front. The bass player wants to meet you.
Geeky.org
This kind of thing has been researched for years already in "lab supermarkets". These are supermarkets with all sorts of hidden electronic cameras and sensors to monitor the activities of shoppers and thus design and test technologies to rip them off big time.
This is of course a blatant invasion of customers' privacy. It is none of my supermarket's business what I look at, for how long, how quickly I walk through different aisles, the route I take inside the store, etc. This is why I shop only in small markets-- only there will you find a respect for the dignity of human life in this modern world of impersonal, eploitative Albertson's stores.
One very important question is the safety of this kind of approach. The nonlinear effects can't be very efficient, and there must be a lot more energy in the ultrasound than in the audible sound. How safe is it to have large amounts of ultrasound energy beamed at you for extended periods of time? I think I'll stick with headphones.
As an aside, the trademarking is taking on ridiculous proportions: "Audio Image (TM)"? "Directed Audio (TM)"?
I wanna be able to focus about say...um 5.xx cps at 120 db.Imagine being able to control someones bowel movement with that! Public speakers,shithead drivers,cops,etc.
Of course you could also kill with that technology too.(Hafler Trio fans know what I'm saying)
On the lighter side you could concievably"throw your voice"by putting the image on someones face.(imagine those hijinx)
I wanna hear that they have laser-like control over this soon.
M.I.T. got SLACK!
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
this could be nice in the cinema. Some people hear the killer approaching from while the others get really shocked when he rams the knife into the back of the girl taking a shower :-)
I can see great postential for this when it gets much smaller. Imagine when this could be built into my hat, to provide me with my own personal sound system surrounding my head. Combine this with a system to display to my eyes (check out Microvision) and you've got a personal computer output device. Now all we need are sensors to detect where my hands are and a "virtual keyboard" and a microphone with voice recognition, and now we've got a personal input/output device built into my hat. Add a wireless connection to any computer that happens to be around or even a connection to the net via sattelite, and now we've got something with REAL potential!
;)
Okay, bit of a rant, sorry.
--Joshua
They use these gadgets at Oslo airport (see picture). In Norway they call these things "sound showers" and they play insane poetry and the sound of breaking waves etc.
Oh, give it up, Mr. Gore. Those more gullible among the US population might have believed the internet claim. But is is slashdot, Mr. Vice-President, and we know all about the space-time continuum here. You're not getting it by us this time.
;)
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
The implications are far-reaching...vastly improved communication and sonar devices for naval purposes across the world. Imagine a totally undetectable sonar, or the underwater equivalent of a laser tripwire.
Instant miniaturization of all conventional loudspeaker technology. An array of these devices could broadcast a concert or convention across a huge space, with tiny speakers. Just line them up and send out these lines of sound in a big hemisphere. Since the beam is focused, you shoulnd't experience the same kind of audio degeneration that loudspeakers produce.
A totally new form of music, one that uses truly immersive qualities. The laser changed visual representations by adding a spatial element to pictures...we got holograms. That same effect would be possible with a similar audio device. you could get something more than a new genre of music...an entirely new audio art form could come out of this.
Medicine could be changed forever. Ultrasound techniques might move beyond scanning, into a world where non-invasive surgery can be performed with an audio device...if the specs are correct, then the area closest to the 'spotlight' is ultrasound waves, but past that you get sound waves, which can exert force. If a beam like this could pass harmlessly through skin and fascia, but push or cut vital organs and tissues, think what a difference it could make.
Really, these are still trivial kinds of uses for something like this...all of these ideas come from extensions or comparisons of existing technology. Sure, the audio loudspeaker could make clubbing way better, but someone with real smarts could also come up with a way to use this device, a way that no one else has ever dreamed of.
In general this would almost be near impossible. All the really easy discoveries in the history of the world that could be made without formal training have in fact already been accomplished. Most of the rest of them are in fact taken from ideas that need years of technical background and training.
The days of Jimmy getting to make millions of dollars from an idea in his basement are almost gone from the American/World conciousness. You just can't do it. Hell we reached the limits of most modern capacity to understand the frontiers of math and science without someone being an interpreter at least 200 years ago (not joking that's about the same time that calculus was invented and some of the basic ideas of physics were quantified). The only reason that anyone understands anything Einstein is actually understood today is because other people did the responsible thing and actually explained much of what he said in qualatative terms. It's not very nice math at all.
In fact I would fault the modern press for making it even this difficult to understand concepts and apply them. In principal even the most difficult concept can be distilled into something even cletus can understand if given a larger ammount of time.
Yes I personally question all these so called miracles that this Tesla actually created. I do not belive in any conspiracy to hide anything however. If an experiment can be done from data over 100 years ago chances are that someone along the line from then to now would have applied the same ideas and come to thwe same conclusion.
Respond to s
The crazy postal worker comes out of the building holding a poor crying lady in front of him, with a gun to her head. Police cars totally surround the area, cops crouched behind their open doors with guns at the ready...
Officer Fuz points his directional megaphone at the lady's ear and says "Duck now!"
BLAM....
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
Because of course without "formal training" you cannot read papers that have been published by scientists before you. I guess he didn't work in Edison's Lab either, he was just the cleaner. Anyway, I'm off to get some formal training.
// The fastest Alt-Tab in the West
Personally it would take more than that to actually scare a reasoning person in any natural way. Very simple logic can be applied. Monsters havn't been seen by the vast majority of sane people and no reliable recorded data has been shown for their existence and it's exceeding unlikely that you as an average citizen would be singled out therefore it's not likely that monsters would be present. Also I don't think the novelty amusement industry is making big bucks to actually make that much money.
Respond to s
You can experience this in a number of different museums. If you stand in the right place under the tube, you hear some sound associated with the exhibit. If you move three to four feet away, you hear nothing.
I'm not surprised that MIT is hyping this. It's their style. But perhaps they're doing much more with computers to shape the sound. Apparently there's plenty of cool research on finding ways to get an array of speakers to reproduce a three dimensiona aural environment. This is sort of the equivalent of 3d graphics chips.
A real cool solution would be to use a number of small speakers and tubes in concert. Each would broadcast sound at a very low level along a line defined by the axis of the tube. Only a person who's at the intersection point would get a strong enough signal, er noise, well, you get the idea.
Now that I think about it, the US Capitol has a weird effect in the old House of Representatives. If you stand in one place, you can hear someone speak quietly at another. The shape of the dome focuses it. Apparently the legend goes that one legislator discovered this effect and didn't inform the rival party which often gathered in the other spot. The Capitol has since been expanded with new chambers and the spot is now a tourist trap. I think it's functionally equivalent to those pairs of big dishes that are popular at science museums.
...but not cheaply. Think lithotripters. With any luck, this research could make a splash with that technology as well. I'm sure my friend who just had to shell out a lot of money for lithotripter treatment would have liked for his bill to be smaller.
Even if this doesn't help the lithotripter or ultrasound or other medical technologies, it would be nice to get some good sound at night without waking my roommate and without wearing headphones!
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Yeah!
The belly
Yeah!
The belly
Yeah!
And I have a belly!
Yeah!
And it's nice and plump!
Yeah!
It really full of food!
Yeah!
the belly
Yeah!
THE belly!
Yeah!
THE BELLY!
(belly burgers, belly shakes, and belly rings. Do you want fries with that, my man?)
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
just think of the test cheating potential... why wasn't this around when I was in high school?
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
Reading about things like this gives me the urge to sit through boring physics lectures wondering when we start creating black hole models.
Go team smart kids!
{justin.filip | jfilip AT gmail DOT com} {http://jfilip.ca/}
This sounds good to me, I'm ready for the home version. I wouldn't mind being able to turn up my gaming sessions late night and not "wake the neighbors"
now a lot of these effects are being duplicated with technology, only they aren't altering the way our brain senses, they are actually creating pseudo-realities for us to exist in (was that ad on the soccer field really there, or was it digitally placed? did the guy sitting next to me see/hear the same ad?)
were drugs introduced into our society in order to prepare us for the emergence of technologies that would simulate heir same effect? imagine what the world would be like if we were suddenly introduced to a whole bunch of mind-bending technologies. Drugs (and the knowledge of the causes of such drugs, for those who don't partake) gives us the background to understand these technologies.
just a thought
-f
-f
www.blackant.net
Just put in a tracking device, several of these spotlights, and a network of audio pickups and you can have your phone calls directed to you with no headset.
Now how to tell apart the people talking to nothing and the people on the phone...