Hypersonic sound--(DA FUTURE IS NOW!!!*)
The future of audio: No more sore ears!
Chris Harding
Jibsheet Reporter
The way we hear is going to change. Enter hypersonic sound; a device that projects sound like a laser at any listener while only that listener can hear it.
Hypersonic sound works like this: an ultrasonic wave is broadcasted carrying an audible sound wave. The high frequency of the ultrasonic sound wave has enough energy to fire the sound in a straight line. When the hypersonic sound wave hits your ear, you can't hear the ultrasonic wave, but you can hear the audible sound wave.
This was proven by technicians in a demonstration for USA Today. One technician stood at the other side of a busy freeway while the other technician broadcasted the sound of ice clinking in a glass. Because the sound waves are not dispersed in the air, the sound was heard clearly, even with so much ambient noise.
Use of ultrasonic waves is nothing new for the inventor of hypersonic sound, Woody Norris. He was responsible for the basic technology behind ultrasound machines, used for purposes including viewing of preborn babies and breaking up kidney stones. He also invented the technology behind the Jabra cellular phone headset, which uses the sounds made inside the head to form audible words.
Hypersonic sound is not limited to having a single person hear their favorite song in a library without headphones. The American Technology Corporation (www.atcsd.com), formed by Norris, has a website listing the possibilities of the current HSS speaker. One of the configurations allows the sound to be broadcasted in a wide spread, which could be used so all in a home could listen to a movie while the neighbors could sleep on the other side of paper-thin walls.
Speaking of walls, HSS can also be used to bounce sounds off of them as well. Just as the sound you hear bounces off your ears, sound can bounce off walls too. If you've ever been in a huge building with rigid walls, the echoing you hear is sound waves bouncing off those high walls. Therefore, HSS can be directed at a wall and the wall will appear to have made the noise. Norris has confessed that he used this effect to scare trick-or-treaters on Halloween! In this regard, HSS can be the ultimate ventriloquist's tool.
The possibilities for this technology are staggering. Headphones would become obsolete; people could blast their music from a laptop or stereo with HSS and spare others around them of their musical choice. HSS could be used for magic tricks or other distractions.
At international conferences, diplomats are always huddled under their headphones; with HSS, the translator can talk while the diplomat can be informed by his aides or colleagues. The military is interested as well; the ATC website suggests HSS would be perfect to use on aircraft carriers, where the sounds of jets taking off makes it hard to hear important broadcasts. The list of things to do with this technology grows and grows.
No more sore ears, no more bothering the neighbors, no more being told to "turn down that racket," hypersonic sound is possibly the greatest achievement in audio in the last 40 years. While HSS can never really replace conventional speakers when it comes to broadcasting a cleanup on aisle 5 or the "Charge!" at a Mariner game, hypersonic sound is the future. And the future is now.
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