British Engineers Create Sonic Tractor Beam (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: According to the BBC, engineers in Bristol, England have created a system for remote manipulation of physical objects using sound holograms. The video shows pea-sized objects being dragged around and stacked up in mid-air with no visible means of support. "In essence, an object sitting in a 'quiet' region of space can be held there if it is surrounded by very high-intensity sound waves. As the pattern of that boundary shifts, the object can be moved around." If the Empire is making a tractor beam, now they only need a Death Star to go with it.

Comments

Screwdriver Form

[tgetzoya]

When will they get this in screwdriver form?

Re:Ah yes

[bobbied]

A tractor beam, that relies on waves propagating through matter, that will work in the nearly matterless void that is space, right?

Just turn up the volume until it works..

Re:Not a tractor beam

[Anonymous Coward]

It attracts defense $.

You might even call it a "contractor beam."