Business Week: December 2, 1996
Science & Technology: AUDIO
From WAACO KID
THE COOKIE-SIZE CONCERT HALL
A new technology could turn loudspeakers into relics, fast
Imagine this: Your next stereo system arrives without big, boxy
loudspeakers. Instead, it has a pair of silvery disks, each the size of an
Oreo cookie and covered with a dozen or so circular crystals.
These curious structures, which are similar to the piezoelectric quartz
crystals that keep time in watches, will tease musical notes out of thin
air--and the sound will be better than that of speakers costing thousands of
dollars.
This radical departure in sound reproduction, called HyperSonic Sound,
could be the biggest breakthrough since modern speakers were conceived in
1925. Its inventor, Elwood G. ``Woody'' Norris, has already filed for three
patents and has an additional five applications in the works. He contends
his crystal speakers could supplant ordinary speakers in everything from
hearing aids and personal computers to movie-theater sound systems.
Some makers of high-end stereo gear agree. Says James J. Croft,
vice-president for research and development at Carver Corp.: ``If this
technology doesn't have any hidden snags, it will replace normal
loudspeakers overnight.'' His Lynnwood (Wash.) company is negotiating with
Norris' American Technology Corp. in Poway, Calif. Carver hopes to launch a
``speakerless'' audio system by next fall.
TARTINI TONES. Existing electromechanical speakers use electrical signals to
vibrate a thin diaphragm, creating sound waves that ripple through the air
in all directions. Norris' crystals pulsate thousands of times faster,
emitting a pair of ultrasonic waves at frequencies far beyond human--or
animal--hearing. But when the ultrasound waves interact, they produce a
third sonic wave--and it can be heard. This magic is based on a phenomenon
first described by Giuseppe Tartini, an 18th century Italian composer:
Whenever two different notes are played loudly at the same time, out drops a
so-called Tartini tone, the frequency of which is exactly the difference
between the two original sounds.
Because ultrasonic waves travel in a tight path, the crystals can also
produce startling special effects--by projecting a selected sound to a
specific location. Norris likens the principle to a spotlight: If it's not
shining toward you, you don't see its light until the beam hits something.
Similarly, the ``spot sound'' of a jet plane could be aimed at the ceiling
of a movie theater and travel across it. ``Today's speakers put sound
everywhere,'' Norris says. ``This one puts sound only where you want it.''
More important, it also avoids unwanted reflections in home stereos. With
ordinary loudspeakers, the music gets tainted by echoes bouncing off the
wall behind the speakers. These echoes arrive at your ears a split second
after the direct signal and ``smear'' the sound. Getting rid of such
defects, so speakers could match the fidelity of digital audio, was the
motive behind Norris' invention. Since the advent of compact disks in the
1980s, distortion has been virtually eliminated from audio recordings.
Today, hi-fi's weakest link is the loudspeaker.
SPACE SAVER. It's difficult for any conventional speaker to reproduce the
entire spectrum of human hearing, which extends from deep bass notes at 20
hertz (cycles per second) to shrill 20,000-hz tones. Speaker materials that
can make rich bass sounds can't accurately handle high notes. Consequently,
speaker boxes typically house two or more speakers, each specializing in
narrow tonal ranges.
Now, all these complexities go out the window. Norris' little HyperSonic
speakers aren't troubled by the breadth of human hearing because they
operate in a different realm--the ultrasonic. One of the two ultrasonic
signals that produces audible sound as a byproduct is a constant 200,000-hz
frequency. It's mixed with a second signal that varies from 200,020 hz to
220,000 hz. Subtract one from the other, and the resulting Tartini tones run
the audible gamut.
Norris is not the first to try to harness the Tartini effect. But the
others used dual transducers and attempted to precipitate Tartini tones by
crossing the beams. This proved highly inefficient. ``If you rely on
acoustical events in the air, it's so haphazard that the effect is
observable but useless,'' Norris asserts. His solution: Mix the two waves
electronically. The resulting compound signal is fed to an array of crystals
that floods a room with music.
While Carver will probably be the first to market this concept, American
Technology is already talking to other companies about applying it in
computers and cars. Both industries have a similar problem: They want good
sound, but space for speakers is at a premium. In addition, carmakers are
interested in using the technology for so-called active noise
cancellation--where an ``antisound'' system listens for engine noises and
muffles them with mirror-image sounds. Says Richard N. Lehtinen, a former
broadcast engineer and now an analyst at market researcher In-Stat Inc. in
Scottsdale, Ariz.: ``The principle seems sound, and the applications seem
endless.''
If HyperSonic Sound delivers on its promise of cheaper yet better
speakers, recording engineers should take note. ``Now, any distortion you
hear will come from the process of capturing the recording in the first
place,'' says Carver's Croft. Maybe Woody Norris needs to invent a new
microphone next. |
