SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Using a simple set of loudspeakers, scientists have figured out a way to levitate and rotate objects in midair. If perfected, this "sonic tractor beam" could find uses ranging from treating kidney stones to creating artificial gravity on the International Space Station.
Scientists have used sound to levitate objects before. That feat isn't surprising, as sound is a wave of pressure strong enough to move your eardrum. However, instead of audible sound, sonic levitation utilizes higher ultrasonic frequencies that are beyond the range of human hearing. When blared from loudspeakers in the right configuration, these sound waves can combine to form a sonic scaffolding called an interference pattern—a sort of a force field that can hold a small object aloft.
[...] The algorithm works by constructing the best possible interference patterns, one that not only keeps the bead floating, but lets it twist and move with some freedom. The interference pattern comes about by adjusting the precise synchronization, or "phases," of the waves leaving the various speakers. By setting the phase differences just right, the researchers make the waves combine to reinforce one another in some places and cancel out one another in other places. In that way they create a complex 3D pattern of high and low pressure regions, which the authors call an "acoustic hologram," that can support the bead against the pull of gravity. As the algorithm tunes the phases, the interference pattern and resulting hologram change, enabling researchers to move the bead around.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday October 30 2015, @04:16AM
Uhhhh, more likely it will just squash human beings.... fruit.... delicate things....
It seems to work by applying the right kinds of pressure to all sides of the object in real time, and by modifying that pressure... it rotates and moves. I imagine this feeling like very large and *powerful* fingers pinching you from all sides, and then moving you about in space. Although, it's still an interference pattern, which implies that may have the delicate control necessary to control the amount of force against the object. It's not pushing the ultrasonics through the object, as that would seem to make it ballistic. Pick up a grape and do the same thing with your fingers. It's possible to roll it around between your two hands and not cause it any damage.
If you watch the video it makes it pretty clear about the forces surrounding the object, and those forces do look exactly like hands squeezing the shit out of that small bead. Those hands rotate in sync with the object, which implies to me all of that force could be rolling and pinching it if they have no control.
There could easily be human applications, but you will need to create effective "cages" that can take and distribute the force instead. Even if the ultrasonics don't penetrate to bones, I can't imagine it *feels* very good. In other words, we still need a vehicle to levitate, and proper packaging for anything like fruit and veggies.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday October 30 2015, @06:13PM
Behold! The latest in Anti-Terror Weaponry. XD
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"