A new technology called “sound beaming” developed by Noveto Systems allows listeners to hear music or sound without wearing headphones.
All that is needed is a simple device which tracks the ear and sends it audio using ultrasonic waves, creating personal listening experiences inside of a sound bubble, Times Of Israel reported.
The technology allows listeners to listen to music, play a game, or watch a movie without disturbing anyone else. That being said, unless you are within the distance of the device you won’t be able to hear sounds.
“You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it… it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you,” Product Manager Ayana Wallwater said.
In other words, the lack of headphones means it’s possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly.
The technology uses a 3-D model which locates and tracks the ear position sending audio via ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets around the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or a spatial 3-D mode that creates 360-degree sound around the listener, the company said in a statement to the Associated Press which reviewed the device.
Although the technology is being heralded as “new,” it’s anything but new; Noveto is simply the first to launch the technology in a consumer sense and their SoundBeamer 1.0 desktop device will be the first branded product. However, the technology before being called “sound beaming” is known as “microwave hearing,” which is documented with a former unclassified document from the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command received via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request back in 2006 entitled “Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons.”
The document is dated 1998, more than 20 years ago. One of the main topics regards the effects of “radio frequency directed energy.” The document discusses the “incapacitating effect” of “microwave hearing:”
