British Engineers Create Sonic Tractor Beam (bbc.co.uk) 88
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.
Screwdriver Form (Score:5, Funny)
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You intend to screw with some peas, do you?
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Here's an idea for Dice: before someone is allowed to moderate, they must prove they have a sense of humor. :)
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Whoever modded this 'troll' needs to have their geek privledges suspended.
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I modded it off-topic because the story has fuck all to do with Dr Who...
Bullshit. Look, I'm all for nipping memes in the bud, but if there's one time we can get away with it, this is it. This is the first time we've seen something in our own technology that can explain the magic of how it works. Not bad considering it has been disguised as a 'tractor beam'.
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Right after they perfect the Heimlich maneuver with it I presume.
Wrong Doctor. Go back to Geek School.
Ah yes (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?
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couldnt we just reverse the polarity?
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A layman might try that, however as an expert I would cross the streams.
Re:Ah yes (Score:5, 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..
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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..
Turn it up to 11!!!!!!
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Years ago, I'd visit the physics department and one of the things they were playing with (they had the coolest toys) was a speaker made of some exotic material - I think it may have been ceramic so not that exotic. Anyhow, they were pumping very low frequencies into it and using it to balance a pingpong ball in mid air. I read the summary but, being no heretic, I didn't read the article. I suspect the same thing applies.
Oddly enough, I don't think they were studying sound or pingpong. I was probably a littl
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Years ago, I'd visit the physics department and one of the things they were playing with (they had the coolest toys) was a speaker made of some exotic material - I think it may have been ceramic so not that exotic. Anyhow, they were pumping very low frequencies into it and using it to balance a pingpong ball in mid air. I read the summary but, being no heretic, I didn't read the article. I suspect the same thing applies.
Oddly enough, I don't think they were studying sound or pingpong. I was probably a little drunk, or high. I seem to recall that they were actually doing something with fluid dynamics. No, no I am not a physicist and my memory is pretty fuzzy. This was way back in the early 1990s or late 1980s. I seem to recall that they were actually using a very high speed camera to look at it. I've no idea what the outcome was and I strongly suspect they were high too.
I think you were high when you posted this. Sober up before going on-line.
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Actually, a quick Google indicates it may have been using aero-acoustics to study fluid dynamics. You're free to poke around here:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Anything published would have been post 1992. And sober up? Why, I never!
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No, this was them floating a ping pong ball with sound. It was MIT. They were video taping it - and watching the waves because you can do that with a high speed camera. I'm pretty sure they were neither studying ping pong nor acoustics - I'm pretty sure that they were working on fluid dynamics. I have no idea what ever became of it, it was just neat to see. This device seems like a much refined form of the above. MIT was not, as far as I know, the first to float a ping pong ball with sound. They might have
PULL! (Score:2)
The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere "to pull".
So far, they all push.
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In Space... no one can hear your tractor beam!
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Who writes this tripe? (Score:1)
"If the Empire is making a tractor beam, now they only need a Death Star to go with it."
Not even wrong.
Not a tractor beam (Score:2)
Re:Not a tractor beam (Score:5, Funny)
It attracts defense $.
You might even call it a "contractor beam."
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I hear this is their third version.
The first could be used to calculate angles. It was a protractor beam.
The second was used to black out sensitive text from documents. It was a redactor beam.
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Man I wish I could mod this up, but it's already at 5... so awesome I nearly sprayed Mt. Dew all over the screen.
Re:Not a tractor beam (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.,
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<quote><p>And this is demonstrated in the video attached to the article too.,</p></quote>
and the video was too short. I wonder the size of the little pebble size balls were as in weight? Looks like they didn't even match the weight of a ping pong ball. Then I have to wonder what size their new gadget needs to be if they had a truck instead of that little pebble?
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and the video was too short. I wonder the size of the little pebble size balls were as in weight? Looks like they didn't even match the weight of a ping pong ball. Then I have to wonder what size their new gadget needs to be if they had a truck instead of that little pebble?
I think you are missing the point. The size or weight does not matter. It just demonstrates that tractor beam can be used in such the way. In the future, they may be able to use it to move bigger/heavier objects. Trying to imagine the size of gadget now has nothing to do with the demonstration because it will go under a lot more research in order to achieve something more useful.
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"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.,
Got me to go RTFA. I cannot believe how much the web has changed since I last saw it, circa 1998 or so!
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Is this something like a pusher robot?
Ya but ... a 'quiet' region of space ? (Score:2)
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.
In Space, no one can hear you tractor beam.
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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.
In Space, no one can hear you tractor beam.
Ah, just turn up the volume until somebody does.... My volume knob thing goes to 11! So there....
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Everyone in space can hear a Disaster Area concert.
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In Space, no one can hear you tractor beam.
That's so right!
Its because of all those other galaxies. Andromeda, Cartwheel Galaxy, NGC 4676. They are ripping us off. They make a fortune with our air. If Trump becomes president, he will bring back the oxygen, he will bring back the nitrogen, and make this galaxy GREAT AGAIN. He loves the Cartwheelians. He loves the Cartwheel people. He has thousands and thousands working for them. Their leaders are too smart for us. Imagine Rubio negotiating with the Andromeda
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In Space, no one can hear you tractor beam.
That's so right!
Its because of all those other galaxies. Andromeda, Cartwheel Galaxy, NGC 4676. They are ripping us off. They make a fortune with our air. If Trump becomes president, he will bring back the oxygen, he will bring back the nitrogen, and make this galaxy GREAT AGAIN.
He can also built a transparent wall around the earth to keep out those illegal aliens and protect our air supply. Of course, it will need to have a combination. I wonder if he'll use the same combination as the one he has on his luggage?
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I feel like Futurama had the right idea with Nixon's head being president... just the wrong crazy old president.
Its a tractor beam Jim ... (Score:2)
but not as we know it.
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Pretty sure your browser's broken then, the BBC article has a video just above the text "Engineers in Bristol".
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No, this is not because of advertising. The bbc tries to make copying the content hard, and uses digital restrictions management. They even supported EME: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/ar... [wired.co.uk]
Like this? (Score:3)
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Just one more thing... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, that and an atmosphere.
Tarctor beam. (Score:1)
Was it Scotty? (Score:2)
What happened to Slashdot? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Watch "Clash of the Titans" by Ray Harryhausen.
R2D2 is clearly the mechanical owl. The rest is a pretty close parallel too.
Of course, Joe Campbell's book "Hero with 1000 faces" was a strong influence to both.
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Fuck Star Wars, it's the Wizard of Oz in space.
Best. Description. Ever.
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In Soviet Russia... (Score:2)
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So here's a question.... (Score:1)
Good news! (Score:2)
Now we don't need ants to sort tiny screws in space!
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Now we don't need ants to sort tiny screws in space!
And to think, I had just put up my "Hail Ants!" poster.
Laugh (Score:1)
"If the Empire is making a (sonic) tractor beam, now they only need a Death Star to go with it."
Wouldnâ(TM)t work in space now would it...
Why is everyone so obtuse? (Score:2)
The basic physics likely points to the possibility of using modulated light waves (or x-ray, gamma ray waves). Those propagate quite well in a vacuum. The question will be how much energy is needed to achieve the necessary wave density to manipulate objects.
This is a pretty cool, imho.
Misnomers (Score:1)
Holding out for a radio tractor beam (Score:2)
Where is my radio tractor beam? I need to know.
Sound in space! (Score:2)
If the Empire is making a tractor beam, now they only need a Death Star to go with it.
Darned kids. In my day, sound didn't travel through space