Hypersonic Sound Will Change the Way we Listen Forever

Rarely is an invention so unique, so visceral and so simple that in 15 seconds most people who experience it realize it could alter everyday life. But that's what happens to just about anyone who steps out to the back parking lot of American Technology Corp. (ATC) here for a demonstration of its invention called HyperSonic Sound (HSS). Essentially, HSS for the first time does for sound what the laser did for light — intensely focuses and channels it so it can travel great distances without dispersing. In the demo, a technician points a speaker the size of a cereal box at someone standing 100 yards away. Amid the din of the nearby freeway, the technician plays a recording of ice cubes clinking into a glass. To the listener, the sound comes across as if it were through headphones, totally unlike a sound blaring from a distant speaker over oppressive car noise. Take two steps to the side, out of the sound beam, and you hear nothing at all. Step back in, and there it is again. "I am certain that in time, HSS will be used everywhere," says Dionyssis Angelopoulos of Athens, Greece. He read about HSS, came to San Diego to hear it and went back to his Greek company to build it into commercial sound systems. Though the technology is still years from becoming mainstream, HSS could be used to make laptop speakers that blare music to the person in front of the screen, while no one else could hear it. It could allow a grocery store to play audio advertisements that seem to come from, say, the display of Duracell batteries, yet the ad could be heard only by the shopper in front of the display. An HSS-equipped car could play one CD for the parents up front and another for kids in the back. Neither would hear even a whisper of the others' music. The technology is winning believers from Wal-Mart to McDonald's, Fox television, the Los Angeles Police Department, Procter & Gamble, the U.S. Navy and Cirque de Soleil. It is looking into whether HSS could be used to communicate instructions, midact, from the ground to a trapeze artist without the audience hearing. Companies are experimenting with HSS in TVs, rock concerts, museums, war and airport gates. Imagine hearing only your flight's announcements. In 2002, Popular Science magazine awarded HSS the grand prize for inventions. The Segway personal transporter took second. "It offers huge benefits over your standard speaker systems," says Sony executive Simon Beesley, who is working on HSS in commercial settings, such as stores or restaurants. "The technology is in its infancy, but I am sure it will very quickly expand." As it does, HSS will probably rattle the speaker industry, which has been selling a variation of the same technology for nearly 80 years. The impact could be like that of the jet engine on propeller planes or the PC on the mainframe — a major shift that ushers in an era.
Via USA Today