Scientists Invented Sound That Travels Through Air and Finds Just You

Bright Side

Imagine blasting your favorite song — and only you can hear it. 🎵 No headphones, no speakers, just a “sound bubble” around your head. Scientists have actually made this real! Using special waves, they can aim sound like a laser, so it follows you while everyone else hears silence. It’s the future of music, privacy, and tech — and it’s straight-up sci-fi come true.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00So, you're at a festival and it's getting really rowdy.

00:04Your friend has gone to grab some drinks, and you've lost sight of him.

00:07Suddenly, his voice sounds loud and clear in your ears, asking what drink he should get for you.

00:13Now, are we in a sci-fi movie or what?

00:17No, apparently that's what scientists can do now.

00:20They've made a sound that can travel through space and reach just your ears in the crowd.

00:26Researchers conducted a new study and found a way to make tiny pockets of sound stay in one place.

00:33These pockets don't spread around like normal sound, and it means we can now create sound exactly where we want it,

00:40like sending it only to one person in a room.

00:44This discovery might totally change the way we enjoy music, talk to people, or experience sound in games and virtual spaces.

00:51You see, sound is just vibration moving through the air in waves.

00:56When something moves back and forth, it pushes and pulls the air.

01:00That movement creates sound waves.

01:03The speed of these waves is called frequency.

01:06If this frequency is low, we hear a deep sound, like a bass drum.

01:10When the frequency is high, it produces a sharp sound, like a whistle.

01:14Wee-hee!

01:14Now, at the same time, it's hard to control where sound goes, because of something called diffraction.

01:22This just means that sound waves like to spread out as they move.

01:26This is even worse with low-deep sounds, which have long waves and are harder to keep in one place.

01:32Some devices, like parametric speakers, can send sound in one direction, like a beam.

01:37Even then, the sound is still heard along the whole path.

01:41It doesn't stay in one spot.

01:43But now, researchers have actually figured out how to do that using something called ultrasound

01:49and a special trick called non-linear acoustics.

01:54Now, ultrasound is a sound that's too high-pitched for people to hear.

01:58Anything above 20,000 hertz or 20 kilohertz.

02:02Even though we can't hear it, it still travels through the air like a regular sound.

02:06It's used in things like medical scans.

02:08For example, ultrasound imaging, and in some industrial tools.

02:13So, in their research, scientists use ultrasound to carry normal sound.

02:17They made ultrasound waves move through the air quietly,

02:21and the actual sound only became audible right where they wanted it to.

02:26Now, usually, sound waves just add up when they meet.

02:29That's called linear behavior.

02:31Nothing special happens, the sounds just mix together.

02:33But when sound waves are strong enough, they can act differently.

02:37They combine in a non-linear way, which can create new sounds that weren't there before.

02:43Using this knowledge, the researchers took two ultrasound beams, each at a different high frequency.

02:50By themselves, these beams were totally silent.

02:52But when they met in space, they mixed in this non-linear way and created a brand-new sound wave that we could hear.

03:01And that sound only appears in the spot where the beams cross.

03:05Normally, sound travels in straight lines, unless it bounces off of something.

03:10But researchers used special materials called acoustic metasurfaces.

03:15It allowed them to bend those ultrasound beams as they moved.

03:19Kind of like how glasses bend light.

03:22By changing the timing of the waves really precisely,

03:26they can curve the sound around objects and make it reach an exact point.

03:30Like sending it around a corner and having it land right by your ear.

03:34Now, let's say they use one beam at 40 kHz and the other at 39.5 kHz.

03:41When these beams meet, they create a sound at the difference between those two.

03:460.5 kHz or 500 Hz, which is a frequency we can hear.

03:51But again, you only hear it right where those beams intersect.

03:56Everywhere else, silence.

03:58Even so, you could send sounds straight to one person without headphones

04:02and not disturb anyone around them.

04:06Imagine walking through a museum and hearing an audio guide just for you.

04:10No headphones needed.

04:12Other people nearby could be listening to totally different information

04:15without any sound overlapping.

04:18In a library, students could listen to lessons

04:20without bothering the person next to them.

04:23In a car, this tech could let passengers listen to music

04:26while the driver hears only the GPS directions.

04:29Aw, man!

04:30In offices, it could create small zones

04:33where people could have private conversations without being overheard.

04:37It could also work the other way around,

04:40by canceling noise in a certain spot to make things quieter.

04:43This could help people concentrate better at work

04:46or even reduce noise in busy cities.

04:49Now, this isn't something you'll be able to buy just yet.

04:52There are still some challenges.

04:54For one thing, the sound quality can get a bit distorted

04:57because of how the ultrasound waves interact.

05:00Also, turning ultrasound into sound you can hear takes a lot of energy,

05:05which makes it less efficient right now.

05:08Still, the idea of creating audio bubbles is absolutely fantastic.

05:12It's not the only recent invention that explores sound.

05:17How about AI headphones that allow you to focus on just one voice?

05:21You might say that these days,

05:23we already have noise-canceling headphones that can block out sound,

05:27but you really don't get to choose what to focus on or when.

05:31But researchers from the University of Washington

05:34have come up with a smart solution.

05:36They've built a system called Target Speech Hearing

05:40that works with AI and headphones.

05:43You just look at the person you want to hear for about 3 to 5 seconds,

05:46and the headphones will lock on to their voice.

05:50After that, the headphones block out all the other sounds around you

05:54and play only that person's voice in real time.

05:57And even if you're in a loud place

05:59or you walk around and aren't facing them anymore,

06:02it still works.

06:03The headphones aren't for sale yet.

06:06But the code is out there, and others can't experiment with it.

06:09Let's dive deeper into how it all works.

06:12You wear regular headphones that have built-in microphones.

06:15When you want to hear someone,

06:17you just press a button and look at them while they're speaking.

06:20The system figures out who you want to hear

06:23by measuring when their voice hits both microphones at the same time.

06:27There's a small margin of error, but it works pretty well.

06:31That sound is then sent to a small computer built into the headset.

06:34The AI software listens and learns the voice you've chosen.

06:39From that point on, the system keeps picking out that person's voice and playing it clearly to you,

06:45even if you're both moving around.

06:47The more that person talks, the better the system gets at recognizing and focusing on them.

06:52They tested this on 21 people, and on average,

06:56the sound of the selected voice was rated nearly twice as clear as the normal unfiltered sound.

07:02Now, right now, the system can only focus on one speaker at a time,

07:07and it has trouble if another loud voice is coming from the same direction.

07:11But if the sound isn't clear enough,

07:14you can just do another enrollment to help it improve.

07:17They're now working on making the text small enough to fit into earbuds and hearing aids.

07:23Scientists have also found that the human ear itself has hidden modes.

07:27Researchers at Yale University were just trying to figure out how our ears can pick up super quiet sounds.

07:34And in the process, they discovered a hidden way that the ear might handle low-frequency sounds.

07:40You know, those deep rumbling ones?

07:42It helps us hear better without getting overwhelmed by noise.

07:46Scientists think that the cochlea, which is the spiral-shaped part of the inner ear,

07:51might be using a whole set of low-frequency mechanical modes.

07:55Basically, when sound comes into your ear,

07:58it creates tiny vibrations that travel through the cochlea.

08:02Inside, little hairs on a membrane detect those vibrations

08:05and send signals to your brain so you can hear.

08:08The problem is that these vibrations can weaken as they travel,

08:13making sounds dull or quiet.

08:15Now, we already knew that certain parts of these hair cells

08:18can boost those signals with a well-timed kick to make the sounds clearer,

08:23kind of like a built-in amplifier.

08:25But now, it looks like the ear has another trick up its sleeve.

08:29It can also tune and boost sound more broadly,

08:33especially for low-frequency sounds.

08:34And it does this without making up fake sounds or overreacting.

08:40New models show that the hair cells can work not just individually,

08:44but also in larger groups all at once.

08:46This lets the ear adapt and control how it processes vibrations.

08:51For lower-pitched sounds,

08:53even big sections of the membrane in the cochlea

08:55can work together to keep the sound clear

08:58and avoid overwhelm in the system.

09:00This discovery might explain

09:02how we're able to hear such quiet low sounds in the first place.

09:06That's it for today.

09:07So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

09:10then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

09:12Or if you want more,

09:13just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

09:16And if you won't have any sense,

09:32and you'll leave me a like and share it with your friends.

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