Radical Technology – but is it for a niche only?

This article from MIT’s Technology Review discusses directional sound devices, based on using ultrasonic (above 20,000 hertz) emitters. The two separate developers are talking the usual junk about how they could replace loudspeakers. This is junk for several reasons. One being that in home entertainment contexts, the interaction between sound and the room is an important part of the final result. If it weren’t preferable, we would all just listen with headphones.

Another reason is that producing bass using these systems seems to be an intractable problem. Bass is far more omnidirectional than even middle audio frequencies … and far more penetrating.

So while I can imagine many useful communications an advertising applictions for this beamed sound, for home entertainment, not a chance.

This entry was posted in Audio, How Things Work, Rant. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *