Projecting Sound 'Inside Your Head' 296
Gregus writes "Projecting 'hypersonic sound' has appeared here before, but NY Times Magazine (FRRYYY) has an in-depth article with its lauded inventor and its applications. John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right now." Plus this story includes screwing with Mall Walkers!
I saw this on CNN a while back (Score:5, Interesting)
This is scary.. (Score:5, Interesting)
This will likely become... (Score:5, Interesting)
What about sonic weapons? Is there any reason why a rigged emitter couldn't be built that would emit a signal loud enough to rupture the eardrums of a specific target? Or at the very least, cause excruciating pain?
I think the inevitable barrage of targeted advertising will be the least of our worries with this new technology.
while the technology is cool (Score:3, Interesting)
conversely (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously cool (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Grado SR 80 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is scary.. (Score:2, Interesting)
In reality, HIDA is both warning and weapon. If used from a battleship, it can ward off stray crafts at 500 yards with a pinpointed verbal warning. Should the offending vessel continue to within 200 yards, the stern warnings are replaced by 120-decibel sounds that are as physically disabling as shrapnel. Certain noises, projected at the right pitch, can incapacitate even a stone-deaf terrorist; the bones in your head are brutalized by a tone's full effect whether you're clutching the sides of your skull in agony or not.
Applications (Score:3, Interesting)
The other direction, the steerable microphone with strong off-axis noise rejection, has been around for years. I have one, and it's not a big parabolic reflector; it's four small microphones and a DSP. Combine that with the ultrasonic speaker and you have a hands-free phone that's useful in office environments. You could probably mount the microphones on the speaker, because the outgoing signal is ultrasonic until the impedance of the air downconverts it. So the outgoing audio can be filtered out from the microphones.
Re:This is scary.. (Score:4, Interesting)
So will headphones with a hard external shell.
If someone puts sound someplace in public, there is really no way to avoid it now. The difference is, with HSS, you can have fine spatial control over the exact position of the sound. If anything, there should be a lot more quiet in public, and perhaps more sound in very specific locations.
I kinda like the idea that you could, in principle, use a hard surface to totally reflect the sound without loss and direct it at someone else.
A mirror, if you will.
Or, you could use a waveguide to do it.
Got one at Work (Score:5, Interesting)
It's really fun to aim it out the window of our building at passing people below. (God speaking to them, etc)
You can license HSS technology here (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.atcsd.com/tl_hss.html [atcsd.com]
(Includes data sheet, white paper, FAQ, etc...)
Applications? (Score:2, Interesting)
(Time to go set up a haunted house I think.. smashing wine glasses, voices in peoples heads, strange feeling in the stomach - 'must be a ghost passing through me'). I'd make a fortune!
The first time this happens to me (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure that this 'sounds' like great tech to advertisers. It's too bad I will be forced to direct it at you at your home, work, and anywhere you go. I won't be gentle.
I have a right to silence in 'my head' and will defend that right like a crazy motherfucker hearing voices.
Got it, Madison Ave?