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Will We One Day Use Tractor Beams In Manufacturing? (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
Engineers from the University of Bristol have been able to trap (essentially levitate) objects using an acoustic tractor beam that is larger than the wavelengths of sound used by the device... [A]pplications could include touchless control of drug capsules or micro-surgical implements inside the human body using sonic tractor beams. It could also become possible to move and manipulate fragile items in a whole new way. "I'm particularly excited by the idea of contactless production lines where delicate objects are assembled without touching them," said Bristol's Bruce Drinkwater, who oversaw the work.
Futurism.com adds that other researchers are also working on tractor beams in manufacturing, including one at the University of Glasgow. "The group demonstrated the process by assembling a pattern of solder beads using an optoelectronic trap, taking the liquid away, then applying heat to fuse the beads together and forge electrical connections," they report, adding "It should be possible to manipulate as many as 10,000 beads at the same time."
Futurism.com adds that other researchers are also working on tractor beams in manufacturing, including one at the University of Glasgow. "The group demonstrated the process by assembling a pattern of solder beads using an optoelectronic trap, taking the liquid away, then applying heat to fuse the beads together and forge electrical connections," they report, adding "It should be possible to manipulate as many as 10,000 beads at the same time."
Star Trek has been inventing the future since 1964
Won't work in outer space. Good start though.
This is much easier to understand if you don't think of it as sound. Sound only exists inside the brain, and the word has numerous connotations that obfuscate what's going on here. Outside of the brain, you have simple waves of air pressure. At the simplest level, if you blow on anything hard enough, you can levitate it. But perhaps there is a more efficient way to encode the energy in the moving air, and one that allows more flexibility in how the object can be moved, and balance. That's all that's at work here. The devil is in the details of aligning the frequencies, vectors, etc. [Source: was PhD candidate in audio research at Glasgow University.]
The last 4 seconds of the video are almost unbelievable!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFJpEsKATXE
You can also build your own... http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultrasonic-Array/
TonyWilk
Only if we don't kill each other first. What the fuck is even happening in this world. Jesus Christ. We're out of control.
It has many interesting settings.
A simple rule of thumb, if the headline is a question then the answer is no.
It's always no.
They're not tractor beams, but pressor beams.
It's a neat tech, but "Tractor beam" is stretching it I think. How many dbs do you think it'd take to suspend a 30 lb box? I suspect a very dangerous amount. Still for small stuff, this could be very cool.
Your thinking on this really sucks.
And anyway, technically, this isn't simple "blowing." It's vector addition of pressure wavefronts.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I have to wonder what the energy cost is to achieve this? I find it difficult to believe that the energy cost would be efficient for large sized objects, but perhaps it will find niche uses for manipulating small (and lightweight) ones.
The end. Next
University of Glasgow invents tractor beams for manufacturing processes, surpassing the discovery of transparent aluminum a few years ago at the University of Edinburgh (commercialized by the San Francisco based Plexicorp):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Stonehenge was built by aliens using this tech.
So, tractor beams are not possible in space, because there's no sound there ;)
Why it sea shipping still the main method of transporting gods? Because it is efficient. This is also why so called drone delivery will never be more then a publicity stunt with the technology we have today. Lifting something up into the air using propellers is inefficient as hell, plain and simple. And I imagine a 'tractor beam' would be orders of magnitude less efficient then this again.
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Whistle physics
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
Only if the sound is a purely mirrored wavefront - a pure tone. Even that, however, is not at all the same as "not blowing."
Put your hand in front of a subwoofer that's pumping a bit. A pure 20 Hz tone is fine. The air most certainly is moving. Quite a distance, too.
Think about it: Given an isolated mass of air, if the wind blows east for 1 min at 20 MPH, and then west for 1 min at 20 MPH, then the air, on average, as you say, the air hasn't moved at all. But it most certainly has moved.
Same thing with audio. Just a smaller scale.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
...aaand now you're right back to what I originally said:
So glad you agree. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
1. repulsor beams are more energy efficient, so they are likely to be used first;
2. this device repels, so is kind of like a repulsor beam;
3. a true repulsor beam or tractor beam is gravito-magnetic, not sonic;
4. a true repsor beam will generate an off axis tractor beam of equal power, but with that power dispersed over a wider arc (most likely a full 360 degree dispersal in the plane perpendicular to the beam, with additional dispersal above and below that plane), so there is a small possibility of using that tractor beam for a secondary purpose. That is the most likely way tractor beams will be used.