By B. Bharadwaj & B.

Shiva Ram

y Engineers have struggled for nearly a century to produce a

speaker design with the ideal 20Hz - 20,000Hz capability of human hearing and also produce a narrow beam of audible sound. Audio spot lighting is a very recent technology that creates focused beams of sound similar to light beams coming out of a flash light. Specific listeners can be targeted with sound without others nearby hearing it, i.e. to focus the sound into a coherent and highly directional beam. It makes use of nonlinearity property of air. A device known as parametric array employs the non-linearity of the air to create audible by products from inaudible ultrasound, resulting in extremely directive and beam like sound.

y The technique of using a nonlinear

interaction of high - frequency waves to generate low frequency waves was originally pioneered by researchers developing underwater sonar techniques in 1960's. Audio spotlighting works by emitting harmless high frequency ultrasonic tones that human hear cannot hear. It uses ultrasonic energy to create extremely narrow beams of sound that behave like beams of light.

y These tones make use

of non-linearity property of air to produce new tones that are within the range of human hearing which results in audible sound. This sound system holds the promise of replacing conventional speakers in homes, movie theaters and automobile everywhere.

y The human ear

is sensitive to frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. If the range of human hearing is expressed as a percentage of shift from the lowest audible frequency to the highest it spans a range of 100,000 percent. No single loudspeaker element can operate efficiently over such a wide range of frequencies. Using this technology it is possible to design a perfect transducer which can work over a wide range of frequency which is audible to human hear.

y The original low frequency sound wave such as human speech or a

music is applied into an audio spotlight emitter device. This low frequency signal is frequency modulated with ultrasonic frequencies ranging from 21 kHz to 28 kHz. The output of the modulator will be the modulated form of original sound wave. Since ultrasonic frequency is used the wavelength of the combined signal will be in the order of few millimeters. Since the wavelength is smaller the beam angle will be around 3 degree, as a result the sound beam will be a narrow one with a small dispersion.

y If there is a change in a sound wave, new sounds are formed

within the wave. The new sound signal generated within the ultrasonic sound wave will be corresponding to the original information signal with a frequency in the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz will be produced within the sound wave. Since we cannot hear the ultrasonic sound wave we only hear the new sounds that are formed by non - linear action of the air. Thus in an audio spotlighting there are no actual speakers that produces the sound but the ultrasonic envelope acts as the airborne speaker.

y The new sound produced virtually has no distortions

associated with it. There are no woofers or crossovers. This technology is similar in that you can direct the ultrasonic emitter towards a hard surface, the listener perceives the sound as coming from the spot on the wall. It is recommended that the Audio Spotlight speaker, more accurately called a transducer, is mounted no more than 3 meters from the average listeners ears, or 5 meters in the air.

y Figure shows the dispersion of sound beam from an audio

spotlighting emitter. Even after traveling a distance of 10m the beam covers only an area of 3.2 meter square.

(Power Supply. (Frequency oscillator. (Modulator. ( Audio signal processor. (Microcontroller. (Ultrasonic amplifier. (Transducer.

PARAMETRIC LOUD SPEAKER

(Direct Mode (Projected Mode

3 Can focus sound only at the place you want. 3 Ultrasonic emitter devices are thin and flat and do not require a mounting cabinet. 3 The focused or directed sound travels much faster in a straight line than conventional loudspeakers. 3 Dispersion can be controlled - very narrow or wider to cover more listening area. 3 Can reduce or eliminate the feedback from microphones. 3 Highly cost effective as the maintenance required is less as compared to conventional loud speakers and have longer life span. 3 Requires only same power as required for regular speakers. 3 There is no lag in reproducing the sound.

y Automobiles:

Beam alert signals can be directly propagated from an announcement device in the dashboard to the driver. Presently Mercedes - Benz buses are fitted with audio spotlighting speakers so that individual travelers can enjoy the music of there on interest.

y Retail sales:

Provide targeted advertising directly at the point of purchase.

y Public announcement: Highly focused announcement in

noisy environments such as subways, airports, amusement parks, traffic intersections etc.

y Entertainment system: In home theatre system rear

speakers can be eliminated by the implementation of audio spotlighting and the properties of sound can be improved. y Museums: In museums audio spotlight can be used to describe about a particular object to a person standing in front it, so that the other person standing in front of another object will not be able to hear the description.

y Safety officials:

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Portable audio spotlighting devices for communicating with a specific person in a crowd of people. Emergency rescue: Rescuers can communicate with endangered people far from reach. Military applications: Ship - to ship communications and shipboard announcements. Audio/Video conferencing: Project the audio from a conference in four different languages, forma single central device without the need for headphones. Sound bullets: Jack the sound level 50 times the human threshold of pain, and an offshoot of audio spotlighting sound technology becomes a non-lethal weapon

y Even the best loudspeakers are subject to distortion and

their Omni directional sound is annoying to the people in the vicinity who do no wish to listen. Audio spotlighting system holds the promise of replacing conventional speakers. It allows the user to control the direction of propagation of sound. The audio spotlight will force people to rethink their relationship with sound. Audio spotlighting really "put sound where you want it".

y Audio spotlighting is really going to make a revolution in

sound transmission and the user can decide the path in which audio signal should propagate. Due to the unidirectional propagation it finds application in large number of fields. Audio spotlighting system is going to shape the future of sound and will serve our ears with magical experience.

y www.thinkdigit.com y www.holosonics.com y www.spie.org y www.howstuffworks.com y www.abcNEWS.com y www.silentsound.co.za y www.wikipedia.org y www.techalone.com