You can already buy a special kind of loudspeaker that directs sound with the precision a flashlight beam. These gadgets can send messages to people on the street without disturbing neighbors or create audio explanations for multiple museum exhibits in one room without worrying about a clash of sound. Or they can make an announcement that is only heard by people who are standing in a specific location — say, your storefront window.
But each one will set you back up to $3,000.
The technology could, however, soon get a lot more accessible. A serial inventor has built a version of a speaker in his garage that costs just $175 — opening up sound-pointing capabilities to the average user for the first time.
The inventor, Richard Haberkern, calls the project “Soundlazer.”
Haberkern’s speaker is slightly larger than a smartphone and plugs into a headphone jack. He plans to post the design files and programming information online so that others can hack it to fit their own needs. As is, he suggests it could be used to direct messages on showroom floors or to help bands communicate on stage.
It can also just be fun. “I have walked around with it and pointed it at people’s heads,” Haberkern says, “and they turn around wondering why they have voices in their head.
You, too, may have access to this joke should Haberkern’s $48,000 Kickstarter project succeed (With 58 days to go, he’s raised about $9,000).
Soundlazer works by emitting 39 separate high frequency ultrasonic beams. While the pitch is too high to hear in the air, you can hear the waves colliding with the object the beams are pointed at. The resulting sound can be heard by those within a 2-foot diameter from a range of 20 to 30 feet.
This is not the time, however, to get excited about an office-appropriate music experience that doesn’t require headphones. Though the speaker’s sound frequency is too high to hear, it’s being emitted at a decibel level that rivals that of a rock concert.
What that means: the sound you hear is about as loud as someone talking, but sitting next to the speaker for long periods will probably hurt your ears because of the sound waves you can’t hear.
“It’s loud, but you can’t hear it,” Haberkern says. “It is more of an experiment in physics than anything.”
Source: Mashable
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