- Twin ultrasound transducers create highly focused audio
- Curved sound waves are not audible if you are not at the sweet point
- It could be excellent in classrooms, exhibitions or vehicles.
Wouldn’t it be great if I could have all the benefits of the headphones without having to bother the headphones? That is what a new technology that creates “audible enclaves” could one day deliver.
Technology comes from the Professor of Acoustics Yun Jing at the State University of Pennsylvania, whose team has found a way to project the sound so that only the planned listener can listen to it. It is currently a short range, about 1 m, and relatively quiet at 60DB, but both the range and volume should be improved using greater power transmitters.
How do audio enclaves work?
Audio enclaves are performed with ultrasound waves, which are more frequent than the sound waves we can hear. Two waves pass through acoustic lenses that bend them, creating a curved route so that the waves follow. Those paths converge in destiny, that is you.
The intelligent thing here is that each individual wave is inaudible on its own, so no one listens to anything unless they are at the optimal point where the two waves are in the right place for the listener’s ears, so they form something that their brain can really distinguish.
The hope is that technology can be used to deliver private audio in public places, such as in the classrooms or in the outdoor places, and possibly also within the vehicles.
This is not the first time they promise us custom directional audio. In 2016, Turtle Beach announced its hypersound speakers that used transparent glass to create “highly directional audio.” The promotional video is below.
Turtle Beach announced an association with the Chinese Audfly Audio firm in 2021, and the resulting approach speakers demonstrate one of the disadvantages of technology: where normal speakers begin with a low frequency of two digits (that is, up to 20Hz), these directional speakers have a much higher starting point: 500Hz to 600Hz. That makes them good for speech, but it is not excellent for music.
Attend
It is likely that this technology eliminates all the needs of the best wireless headphones, and it is possible that it does not work in something like a plane, where the environmental noise is so strong that it will still need some of the best headphones that cancel the noise, but imagine that if you can change your TV to send a sound that can only listen with a button once the family will be, or imagine an interesting comment about an museum, simply exhibiting in the right place. No headset is needed: I like the sound of that (if I am at the ideal point).
