Silent Sound System

[tansis]

Elwood "Woody" Norris pointed a metal frequency emitter at one of perhaps 30 people who had come to see his invention. The emitter — an aluminum square — was hooked up by a wire to a CD player. Norris switched on the CD player.

"There's no speaker, but when I point this pad at you, you will hear the waterfall," said the 63-year-old Californian.

And one by one, each person in the audience did, and smiled widely.

Norris' HyperSonic Sound system has won him an award coveted by inventors — the $500,000 annual Lemelson-MIT Prize. It works by sending a focused beam of sound above the range of human hearing. When it lands on you, it seems like sound is coming from inside your head.

Norris said the uses for the technology could come in handy — in cars, in the airport or at home.

"Imagine your wife wants to watch television and you want to read a book, like the intellectual you are," he said to the crowd. "Imagine you are a lifeguard or a coach and you want to yell at someone, he'll be the only one to hear you."

He demonstrated the sound system at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, also called OMSI, on Thursday.

Sounds like an excellent project,
just need to figure out how he does it! :wink:

 

[bmcculla]

The military is starting to use a similar system. It uses a phased array of sound emitters (piezos or flat pannel speakers something like that) to focus painfully loud sound on people to discourage them from doing whatever it is the military doesn't want them doing. The system is small enough to mount on a humvee - the emitter is something like 2 feet square.

I'd bet that the system you're talking about uses a phased array to focus the sound.

As far as being able to hear sound above normal hearing range i'm not sure how this would be done. It might rely on nonlinearities in a person's skull to downconvert the sound. It also might just be hype and the sound is in hearing range but so well focused that other people hear nothing.

It certainly sounds like a cool device though.

 

[chemelec]

Think About the Possibilities.

Obscene messages to specific ladys.
Or your Congress man.
Or How to Brainwash Someone while they Sleep.

I think this may be a step backwards.

 

[Exo]

Or just drive ppl crazy ! :lol:

 

[tansis]

Vandal proof telephone kiosk or public computer and
those advertising fiends will no doubt come up with some
horrid subliminal application in supermarkets..

 

[audioguru]

They are selling them for wireless language translation at seminars. One emitter points at the Chinese people, another at the Italians.
They say when the modulated ultrasonic beam strikes an object, it seems like the sound comes from the object. If it strikes you, it seems like the sound comes from inside your head. Cool, eh? :lol:

 

[zachtheterrible]

Sounds like an excellent project,
just need to figure out how he does it!

you can be sure hes not going to tell you! Think of all the money he would lose.

Anyone ever seen minority report? Ya know how tom cruise is walking around and hearing all of these ads that have his name in them . . . and nobody else can hear them? that would severely piss me off! And the worst part is, earplugs wouldnt do a thing cuz the sound seems to come from inside ur head!