'Audio spotlight' Turns your head into a speaker!

Yes, it's true the new technology literally turns your head into speakers by sending sound waves exclusively to your ears.

audio spotlight

The New York Public Library has incorporated the upcoming technology on its "business information wall" with a display featuring 17 flat screens and the viewers listening via 'audio spotlight' without the use of headphones.

'The audio spotlight is a directional speaker that functions a little like a flashlight; only those in its "sound envelope" hear its message. The device sends out sound waves, and it is as if your head has become the speaker.'

Directional speakers like the Audio Spotlight, invented in the late 1990's by Joseph Pompei or HyperSonic Sound, developed by the American Technology Corporation are based on ultrasound. The sound waves in the system:

'travel through the air in a narrow, column-like beam. The ultrasound in turn vibrates the air, literally like a speaker, creating audible sound, which has wavelengths ranging from about half an inch to more than 50 feet. If you stand in the path of the beam, you feel as if you are wearing headphones.'

Via: nytimes