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posted by martyb on Thursday July 09 2015, @02:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the Lindsay-Wagner-says-she-has-first-dibs dept.

In case you can't get enough news about graphene:

As a species, humans have evolved to have certain strengths and weaknesses. While we don't have the sonar-like range finding capabilities of bats or dolphins, we do have the brains to engineer a device that can give that capability to us.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have done exactly that in their development of tiny ultrasonic microphones made from graphene.

[...] At only one atom in thickness, graphene possesses the key properties of strength, stiffness, and light weight; so it is extremely sensitive to a wide-range of frequencies. In this case, the microphone can pick up frequencies from across the human hearing range—from subsonic (below 20 hertz) to ultrasonic (above 20 kilohertz)—and as high as 500 kHz. (A bat hears in the 9 kHz to 200 kHz range.)

Daredevil, here we come!

 
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:08AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:08AM (#206750) Journal

    Rather than making you like Daredevil/Batman, it's more like being able to capture and store sounds that have always been around but are difficult to pick up. To actually hear them you would need to genetically modify a human or alter the frequencies.

    We should use these new microphones to record new music, (almost) fully taking advantage of the 1 Hz to 655,350 Hz supported by FLAC, could give audiophiles a tingly.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:43AM (#206768)

    I wonder... if the high frequency sounds are converted to neuro-stim impulses, they could be delivered like vision and sound for the intrinsically blind and deaf are already, but instead of replacing basic hearing, they could augment hearing into the ultra-sonic.

    I've never been objectively tested, but (in my youth) I certainly heard higher frequencies than just about anybody I knew (young friends included) - and, incase you are wondering, it's a damn curse. Especially in the early 1980s when retail decided that "ultrasonic" security systems were a good idea, there were stores that I couldn't even go near - while everyone else was like "what? I don't hear anything..."

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 09 2015, @04:10AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday July 09 2015, @04:10AM (#206782) Journal

      It seems to be well on its way:

      http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/health/2015/01/28/implant-gives-frisco-girl-the-gift-of-hearing/22503043/ [wfaa.com]
      http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2279011&resultClick=3 [asha.org]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_brainstem_implant [wikipedia.org]

      From what I gather the signal is primitive and the nerves aren't finely targeted.

      This is something a bit off-topic:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Harbisson [wikipedia.org]

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      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 09 2015, @08:59AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 09 2015, @08:59AM (#206879) Journal

        From what I gather the signal is primitive and the nerves aren't finely targeted.

        Easier with a cochlear implant [wikipedia.org].

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    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday July 09 2015, @07:24AM

      by anubi (2828) on Thursday July 09 2015, @07:24AM (#206839) Journal

      AC...

      I second your observation about ultrasonic security systems. There were several stores near the university I attended that had those, and every minute in them was torture. A constant shrill piercing note that made me think I had someone shoving a knitting needle through my head.

      Even thirty years later, I ended up in a "secure" room doing research for an aerospace company. They, too, had the ultrasound thingie and they would flat refuse to turn it off. They also had me using a particular brand of monochrome monitor whose horizontal oscillator drove me nuts. I used to keep several bottles of aspirin and copious supplies of calcium carbonate nearby to try to neutralize the sensation. The management guy could not hear it so according to him, I was just making it up.

      Some of the old TV's were really noisy as far as their horizontal oscillator goes. But even now, I still hear the switching power supply running in some of my older pentium computers. I do not perceive it as a note, but more like a pressure. It will make me very uneasy and if I stay around it too long, nausea and headaches follow.

      The latest episode with me is it drove me out of my church. I simply could not take the singing when it was amplified up so loud. I think it was harmonics that was doing me in. I also avoid theaters for the same reason. as when I do go, I end up stuffing my ears with wet toilet paper so I can hear.

      I do not hear all that well anymore. There are quite a few parts of the spectrum that have been simply blasted from my perception, making those which still work quite difficult to parse. Trying to hear on the phone is a real pain in the ass for me. I avoid talking on the phone if at all possible. I can usually make out OK if I can see their lips while they are talking.

      I determined my hearing loss by use of an HP651B test oscillator, good set of speakers, and a good microphone linked to an oscilloscope. If the microphone was hearing it, and I wasn't, then I knew it was me, not the speaker or room acoustics, that caused the dropout. I have several frequency ranges that are just dead to me. I believe I messed up what was left of my hearing big-time by not leaving that church sooner. Pleas to the church people to turn the sound down were about as out of line as an asthmatic going to a smoke shop and asking them not to smoke. There are just certain places I have no business going.

      You are not alone.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
      • (Score: 2) by yarp on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:55AM

        by yarp (2665) on Thursday July 09 2015, @10:55AM (#206911)

        Definitely not alone!

        When I used to commute I walked past a phone shop from which came a high-pitched sound and I was seemingly the only person in the vicinity who could hear it. I'm not certain but it had the hallmark of a Mosquito alarm [wikipedia.org]. I can hear the 17.4 kHz audio sample in the Wikipedia article and I'm definitely over 25.

        I could hear the whine from CRT displays, too, back when they were in common use. My induction hob lets out an ear-splitting drone on its higher power modes and my fiancée thinks I'm nuts when I recoil from it.

  • (Score: 2) by That_Dude on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:47AM

    by That_Dude (2503) on Thursday July 09 2015, @03:47AM (#206771)

    I would use it to herd mosquitoes to their doom!