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

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.

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.

10 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Screwdriver Form by tgetzoya · · Score: 5, Funny

    When will they get this in screwdriver form?

  2. Ah yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Ah yes by bobbied · · Score: 4, Funny

      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..

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  3. Not a tractor beam by jules_d'entremont · · Score: 2

    It's a pressor beam. It doesn't attract anything.

    1. Re:Not a tractor beam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It attracts defense $.

      You might even call it a "contractor beam."

    2. Re:Not a tractor beam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a pressor beam. It doesn't attract anything.

      Not true.

      "We wanted to demonstrate that we could do it upside down. We had a discussion and we thought that everyone thinks of a tractor beam as people being sucked up into space.

      "So we mounted the array upside-down in a cardboard UFO, and the particle gets sucked up into it."

      And this is demonstrated in the video attached to the article too.,

  4. Like this? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 2

    At Argonne National Laboratory years ago?

  5. Just one more thing... by msauve · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "If the Empire is making a tractor beam, now they only need a Death Star to go with it."

    Well, that and an atmosphere.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  6. What happened to Slashdot? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The reference should obviously had been either Dr. Who or Star Trek. Fuck Star Wars, it's the Wizard of Oz in space.

    1. Re:What happened to Slashdot? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2

      http://orig04.deviantart.net/f...