Targeted Sound Beams

Mr_Kcleen writes: "Wired has a story on using sound beams targeted to only one person. They discuss various uses, from musical performances to possible weaponization." This is another one of those ideas that are right around the corner, really, honest.

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For more information......

[Mattygfunk]

The New York Times is also covering the article (free reg) or you could just go to The Audio Spotlight's home page for a more detailed account of their technology.

Pompei's MIT website

[JPriest]

Pompei's website hase more detailed information of this here: http://web.media.mit.edu/~pompei/spotlight/ here is a brief description from the site. Technology: Because it is impossible to generate extremely narrow beams of audible sound without extremely large loudspeaker arrays, we instead generate the sound indirectly, using the nonlinearity of the air to convert a narrow beam of ultrasound into a highly directive, audible beam of sound. The device transmits a narrow beam of ultrasound (blue), which, due to the inherent nonlinearity of the air itself, distorts (changes shape) very slightly as it travels. This distortion creates, along with new ultrasonic frequencies, audible artifacts (green) which can be mathematically predicted, and therefore controlled. By constructing the proper ultrasonic beam, this nonlinearity can be used to create, within the beam itself, an audible sound beam containing any sound desired. This is presently done in real-time using low cost circuitry, a specially designed amplifier, and transducers developed at MIT specifically for this project.