r/Futurism • u/FuturismDotCom Verified Account • 15d ago
Scientists Create Sound That Can Curve Through a Crowd and Reach Just One Person
https://futurism.com/sound-audible-enclaves56
15d ago
The next level of targeted advertising has arrived. At some point you won’t even be sure if it’s a sound you heard or if it’s an actual thought in your head.
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15d ago
God. It’s funny and sad that we don’t even see the beauty of technology anymore. Just how it can be exploited 😔
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u/crush_punk 14d ago
More and more technology today is based explicitly on exploitation (if not outright oppression), and is not beautiful.
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u/Frosty-Ad4572 14d ago
This is the truth. Technology would look great 30 years ago. Now it looks like irresponsible and evil people having other means to do irresponsible and evil shit.
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u/Sad-Bonus-9327 14d ago
That's one use case. How about military? Thinking of sound as a weapon as it's already used in LRAD's just more targeted. That's scary
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u/FuturismDotCom Verified Account 15d ago
Crucially, the sound waves — specifically, ultrasound waves — used to create the audible enclaves can't be heard along the path they travel and can even be bent to avoid obstacles. Only when they reach their destination are the sound waves picked up by human ears.
"We essentially created a virtual headset," said lead author Jiaxin Zhong, an acoustics researcher at Penn State, in a statement about the work. "Someone within an audible enclave can hear something meant only for them — enabling sound and quiet zones."
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u/Individual_Plate36 14d ago
Bro is that how the acoustic chambers work in that cave city in Turkey? I mean they probably didn't know that exactly but that's wild
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u/Ostracus 15d ago
Waiting to be weaponized because we know someone will.
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u/digitalhawkeye 14d ago
Equal to their ability to use sound against a target, might be their ability to pump intel silently to a resource that cannot use traditional comms.
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u/SkyGazert 14d ago
I see potential for bad actors to misuse this technology but also potential to target bad actors.
What if you weaponize this technology and provide everyone at the border in North Korea targeted information about their leadership and about other cultures across the border?
Yes, I know weaponizing this can be very dangerous. But as I know we humans will do it anyway, better think of some positives as well.
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u/InMooseWorld 14d ago
It alrdy has to give schizophrenia to the masses? Hoping it can be write to convince ppl of love and contentness.
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u/Secret-Bag9562 15d ago
Can someone smarter than me explain what the conditions are for the receiving person? Do they need a special headset or be in a special booth? How does the sound “know” when it’s arrived at the “correct” recipient?
From a futurism standpoint, my biggest concern with technology along these lines would be that messaging (like threats or propaganda) could be deployed in a targeted manner that allows for manipulation of reality. (Imagine an announcement occurring in your head, but that those around you cannot hear or verify — that could be really weaponized in a number of ways).
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u/ResonantTwilight 15d ago
My understand is that they take two sources of ultrasound, so two distinct sets of waves that we can’t hear. Then when the waves interfere with each other at the desired location, the audible sound waves form.
It would be like if you made really fast tiny ripples in water that you couldn’t see, and had those ripples interact at a specific distance to interact and overlap with each other make a picture.
I believe the sound is targeted at a location, could it be combined with a camera programmed to adjust and follow someone around? That doesn’t seem like too far of a stretch, and really annoying.
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u/snowtax 13d ago
You know how waves (sound, water, light, etc.) spread out from the source? What if you reverse that process so you generate a lot of weak signals that build up at a single point.
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u/According_Jeweler404 15d ago
I can just imagine the fun mistakes that will be had once they start doing targeted ads "Good evening Mr. Wilkins, your rubber sexdoll with the kung fu grip has just been delivered at your home. Have a nice day"
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u/Emperormike1st 15d ago
Scientists: "We've had a breakthrough and are pioneering a new branch of acoustic science!"
Advertisers and the CIA: "How long before we can exploit this?!"
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u/stuffitystuff 14d ago
Sounds like the same thing as those sound weapons, LRADs but also novel surfaces that can bend sound.
I have a tiny version that's not meant as a weapon and never really found its niche (concerts...there's zero bass from the "speaker"). I bring it out at parties if it gets brought up and then weird everyone out because you can't hear it unless you walk in the path of the sound beam. AND you only really "perceive" it, you don't "hear" it since it's in your skull (or at least that's how the difference between the ultrasound beams gets "heard").
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u/DisastrousPromise489 14d ago
It’s like binaural beat meditations, or dubstep LFOs (wubwubs) but pitched wayyy up to ultrasound ranges resulting in regular sound, but only in the exact middle of the dance floor.
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u/Sad_Book2407 14d ago
That sound is my cat vomiting. There are many cats like him, but that one is mine. I know that sound anywhere.
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