[LINK] New device puts music in your head — no headphones required

[Kim Holburn]

On 2020/11/15 11:41 am, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Sun, 2020-11-15 at 11:04 +1100, jwhit at internode.on.net wrote:
>>   The point about participating in a conference call is a bit sus. The
>> participant would still be talking. This is no different from someone
>> on a call and the rest of the open office getting only one side of
>> the conversation.
> 
> Assuming the participant is using headphone. It does help with half the
> equation.

That's an interesting point.  Maybe it might eventually be possible to use this to do some kind of beamformed noise cancellation. 
Shades of "the cone of silence".


>> HOWEVER - if this would work for people with hearing impairments, it
>> could be a huge breakthrough.
> 
> It doesn't really generate sound in people's heads, that was the journo
> being lax. It just generates sound very close to the ear. I suppose if
> it can generate very loud localised sound it might be useful to the
> hard of hearing, but vibration is vibration, and if it's big it will be
> transferred to the surrounding air. Unless (and this is pure
> supposition) they actively suppress the generated vibration in the
> space round the focal point by e.g. generating equal and opposite sound
> (like noise cancelling headphones do).

It's beamforming so they create a bunch of beams of sound that converge at one or two points.  (That's not a technical explanation.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamforming

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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