When it comes to delivering audio, we’ve come a long way. We’ve gone from simply amplifying stuff using speakers to increasingly advanced headphones. And if you thought AirPods were the most scientifically advanced way to listen to stuff, you’ve got another thing coming.
MIT researchers just developed a whole new technology.
Researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, a place that’s known for its radar and audio expertise, have found a way to straight-up beam sound directly into somebody’s ear.
But how?
I’m absolutely delighted to tell you that this new technology uses FRICKIN’ LASERS as its delivery method. Honestly, they had me at ‘lasers’. But reading further into it, it’s legitimately fascinating.
It’s a breakthrough.
Researchers Charles Wynn, Ryan Sullenberger and Sumantha Kaushik recently published their findings in Optics Letters , the journal of the Optical Society of America. The details of this tech sound like wizardry.
It’s kinda like that.
It won’t be as cool as firing a laser-equipped handgun directly into somebody’s ear, but it isn’t that far off, either. One crucial thing here is that the lasers are completely safe — a nice feature when they’re being beamed into your ear.
It’s a step up from Bluetooth.
They’re both wireless technology, but this doesn’t rely on a Bluetooth connection. Instead, all that’s needed is the laser device itself and an ear that’s willing to hear what it transmits.
What can it transmit?
The system is versatile, meaning it can transmit speech or music. This means the lasers could transmit everything from your favorite pocast to whatever the latest annoying video on YouTube is.
But seriously, how does it work?
A laser beam is made of light. So how does light become audio? The key here is the photoacoustic effect, which describes what happens to our perception of sound when a material absorbs light.
…guh?
So in this case, the laser is the light source. Simple enough, right? The material that absorbs it is water vapor that’s found in the air. After some tinkering, the MIT researchers found a way to get things just right.
Early results are impressive.
You might not see this tech at Best Buy anytime soon, but it does sound like it’s already desirable. It can transmit sound more than eight feet at a volume of 60 decibels, which isn’t bad at all.
When can I buy it?
As nice as it would be to not have to worry about Bluetooth pairing ever again, this tech isn’t really intended for the consumer market. Instead, the researchers see it as a possible public safety tool.
Scaling it up could be huge.
If they’re able to beef up the system, it would be ideal for crisis situations. Hypothetically, it could be used to beam instructions to a hostage so only they could hear them.
What do you think?
It’s still early days for this technology, and the researchers say it has a wide range of potential applications. What would you use it for? Let us know in the comments!
