Sound from ultrasound

Sound from ultrasound is the name given here to situations when modulated ultrasound can make its carried signal audible without needing a receiver set. This happens when the modulated ultrasound passes through anything which behaves nonlinearly and thus acts intentionally or unintentionally as a demodulator.

Parametric array

Researchers since the early 1960s have been experimenting with creating directive low-frequency sound from nonlinear interaction of an aimed beam of ultrasound waves produced by a parametric array using heterodyning. Ultrasound has wavelengths much smaller than audible sound and thus can be aimed in a much tighter narrow beam than any traditional audible loudspeaker system.

The first modern device was created in 1998,^[1] and is now known by the trademark name "Audio Spotlight", a term first coined in 1983 by the Japanese researchers^[2] who abandoned the technology as unfeasible in the mid 1980s.

A transducer can be made to project a narrow beam of modulated ultrasound that is powerful enough (100 to 110 dBSPL) to substantially change the speed of sound in the air that it passes through. The air within the beam behaves nonlinearly and extracts the modulation signal from the ultrasound, resulting in sound that can be heard only along the path of the beam, or that appears to radiate from any surface that the beam strikes. The practical effect of this technology is that a beam of sound can be projected over a long distance to be heard only in a small well-defined area^{[citation needed]}. A listener outside the beam hears nothing. This effect cannot be achieved with conventional loudspeakers, because sound at audible frequencies cannot be focused into such a narrow beam.

There are some criticisms of this approach. Anyone or anything that disrupts the path of the beam will interrupt the progression of the beam, like interrupting the illumination of a spotlight. For this reason, most systems are mounted overhead, like lighting.

Applications

Commercial advertising

To aim a sound signal at a particular passer-by without everybody in the area hearing it. In commercial applications, it can target sound to a single person without the peripheral sound and related noise that a loudspeaker emits.

Military and commercial security applications

Military applications have been speculated, such as a "sonic bullet" weapon that aims a highly-directed high-intensity sound wave, causing debilitating pain. However, these devices, such as LRAD, are really just high-powered bullhorns, and contrary to popular misconception, do not use ultrasound at all for sound generation, and instead use traditional loudspeaker elements (tweeters). This type of loudspeaker is unrelated to this article. Wikileaks has published leaked technical specifications for military use of anti-crowd , anti-pirate sound weapons. "Ref"

History

This technology was originally developed by the US Navy and Soviet Navy for underwater sonar in the mid-1960s, and was briefly investigated by Japanese researchers in the early 1980s, but these efforts were abandoned due to extremely poor sound quality (high distortion) and substantial system cost. These problems went unsolved until a paper published by Dr. F. Joseph Pompei of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 (105th AES Conv, Preprint 4853, 1998) fully described a working device that reduced audible distortion essentially to that of a traditional loudspeaker.

Products

There are currently four known devices which have been marketed that use ultrasound to create an audible "beam" of sound.^{[citation needed]}

Audio Spotlight

F. Joseph Pompei of MIT developed technology he calls the "Audio Spotlight",^[3] and made it commercially available in 2000 by his company Holosonics, which according to their website claims to have sold "thousands" of their "Audio Spotlight" systems. Disney was amongst the first major corporations to adopt it for use at the Epcot Center, and many other application examples are shown on the Holosonics website.^[4]

HyperSonic Sound

Elwood "Woody" Norris, founder and Chairman of American Technology Corporation (ATC), announced he had successfully created a device which achieved ultrasound transmission of sound in 1996.^[5] ATC named and trademarked their device as "HyperSonic Sound" (HSS). In February 1998, HSS was named the Best of What's New for 1997 by readers of Popular Science ^[6]. In December 2002, Popular Science named HyperSonic Sound the best invention of 2002.^{[citation needed]} Norris received the 2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his invention of a "hypersonic sound".^[7] ATC (now named LRAD Corporation) spun off the technology to Parametric Sound Corporation in September 2010 to focus on their Long Range Acoustic Device products (LRAD), according to their quarterly reports, press releases and executive statements.^[8][9]

Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Corporation

Mitsubishi apparently offers a sound from ultrasound product named the "MSP-50E"^[10] but commercial availability has not been confirmed.

AudioBeam

The German audio company Sennheiser Electronic once listed their "AudioBeam" product for about $4,500.^[11] There is no indication that the product has been used in any public applications. The product has since been discontinued.^[12]

Literature survey

The first experimental systems were built over 30 years ago, although these first versions only played simple tones. It was not until much later (see above) that the systems were built for practical listening use.

Experimental ultrasonic nonlinear acoustics

A chronological summary of the experimental approaches taken to examine Audio Spotlight systems in the past will be presented here. At the turn of the millennium working versions of an Audio Spotlight capable of reproducing speech and music could be bought from Holosonics, a company founded on Dr. Pompei's work in the MIT Media Lab.^[13]

Related topics were researched almost 40 years earlier in the context of underwater acoustics.

1. The first article^[14] consisted of a theoretical formulation of the half pressure angle of the demodulated signal.
2. The second article^[15] provided an experimental comparison to the theoretical predictions.

Both articles were supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, specifically for the use of the phenomenon for underwater sonar pulses. It should be noted that the goal of these systems was not high directivity per se, but rather higher usable bandwidth of a typically band-limited transducer.

The 1970s saw some activity in experimental airborne systems, both in air^[16] and underwater.^[17] Again supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the primary aim of the underwater experiments was to determine the range limitations of sonar pulse propagation due to nonlinear distortion. The airborne experiments were aimed at recording quantitative data about the directivity and propagation loss of both the ultrasonic carrier and demodulated waves, rather than developing the capability to reproduce an audio signal.

In 1983 the idea was again revisited experimentally^[2] but this time with the firm intent to analyze the use of the system in air to form a more complex base band signal in a highly directional manner. The signal processing used to achieve this was simple DSB-AM with no precompensation, and because of the lack of precompensation applied to the input signal, the THD Total harmonic distortion levels of this system would have probably been satisfactory for speech reproduction, but prohibitive for the reproduction of music. An interesting feature of the experimental set up used in^[2] was the use of 547 ultrasonic transducers to produce a 40 kHz ultrasonic sound source of over 130db at 4m, which would demand significant safety considerations.^[18][19] Even though this experiment clearly demonstrated the potential to reproduce audio signals using an ultrasonic system, it also showed that the system suffered from heavy distortion, especially when no precompensation was used.

Theoretical ultrasonic nonlinear acoustics

The equations that govern nonlinear acoustics are quite complicated^[20][21] and unfortunately they do not have general analytical solutions. They usually require the use of a computer simulation.^[22] However, as early as 1965, Berktay performed an analysis^[23] under some simplifying assumptions that allowed the demodulated SPL to be written in terms of the amplitude modulated ultrasonic carrier wave pressure Pc and various physical parameters. Note that the demodulation process is extremely lossy, with a minimum loss in the order of 60dB from the ultrasonic SPL to the audible wave SPL. A precompensation scheme can be based from Berktay's expression, shown in Equation 1, by taking the square root of the base band signal envelope E and then integrating twice to invert the effect of the double partial time derivative. The analogue electronic circuit equivalents of a square root function is simply an op-amp with feedback, and an equalizer is analogous to an integration function. However these topic areas lie outside the scope of this project.

$p_2(x,t) = K \cdot P_c^2 \cdot \frac{\partial^2}{\partial t^2} E^2(x,t)$

Where

• $p_2(x,t) =\,$ Audible secondary pressure wave
• $K = \,$ misc. physical parameters
• $P_c = \,$ SPL of the ultrasonic carrier wave
• $E(x,t) = \,$ Envelope function (such as DSB-AM)

This equation says that the audible demodulated ultrasonic pressure wave (output signal) is proportional to the twice differentiated, squared version of the envelope function (input signal). Precompensation refers to the trick of anticipating these transforms and applying the inverse transforms on the input, hoping that the output is then closer to the untransformed input.

By the 1990s, it was well known that the Audio Spotlight could work but suffered from heavy distortion. It was also known that the precompensation schemes placed an added demand on the frequency response of the ultrasonic transducers. In effect the transducers needed to keep up with what the digital precompensation demanded of them, namely a broader frequency response. In 1998 the negative effects on THD of an insufficiently broad frequency response of the ultrasonic transducers was quantified^[24] with computer simulations by using a precompensation scheme based on Berktay's expression. In 1999 Pompei's article^[13] discussed how a new prototype transducer met the increased frequency response demands placed on the ultrasonic transducers by the precompensation scheme, which was once again based on Berktay's expression. In addition impressive reductions in the THD of the output when the precompensation scheme was employed were graphed against the case of using no precompensation.

In summary, the technology that originated with underwater sonar 40 years ago has been made practical for reproduction of audible sound in air by Pompei's paper and device, which, according to his AES paper (1998), demonstrated that distortion had been reduced to levels comparable to traditional loudspeaker systems.

Modulation scheme

The nonlinear interaction mixes ultrasonic tones in air to produce sum and difference frequencies. A DSB-AM modulation scheme with an appropriately large baseband DC offset, to produce the demodulating tone superimposed on the modulated audio spectra, is one way to generate the signal that encodes the desired baseband audio spectra. This technique suffers from extremely heavy distortion as not only the demodulating tone interferes, but also all other frequencies present interfere with one another. The modulated spectra is convolved with itself, doubling its bandwidth by the length property of the convolution. The baseband distortion in the bandwidth of the original audio spectra is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the DC offset (demodulation tone) superimposed on the signal. A larger tone results in less distortion.

Further distortion is introduced by the second order differentiation property of the demodulation process. The result is a multiplication of the desired signal by the function -ω² in frequency. This distortion may be equalized out with the use of preemphasis filtering.

By the time convolution property of the fourier transform, multiplication in the time domain is a convolution in the frequency domain. Convolution between a baseband signal and a unity gain pure carrier frequency shifts the baseband spectra in frequency and halves its magnitude, though no energy is lost. One half-scale copy of the replica resides on each half of the frequency axis. This is consistent with Parseval's theorem.

The modulation depth m is a convenient experimental parameter when assessing the total harmonic distortion in the demodulated signal. It is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the DC offset. THD increases proportionally with m₁².

These distorting effects may be better mitigated by using another modulation scheme that takes advantage of the differential squaring device nature of the nonlinear acoustic effect. Modulation of the second integral of the square root of the desired baseband audio signal, without adding a DC offset, results in convolution in frequency of the modulated square-root spectra, half the bandwidth of the original signal, with itself due to the nonlinear channel effects. This convolution in frequency is a multiplication in time of the signal by itself, or a squaring. This again doubles the bandwidth of the spectra, reproducing the second time integral of the input audio spectra. The double integration corrects for the -ω² filtering characteristic associated with the nonlinear acoustic effect. This recovers the scaled original spectra at baseband.

The harmonic distortion process has to do with the high frequency replicas associated with each squaring demodulation, for either modulation scheme. These iteratively demodulate and self-modulate, adding a spectrally smeared out and time exponentiated copy of the original signal to baseband and twice the original center frequency each time, with one iteration corresponding to one traversal of the space between the emitter and target. Only sound with parallel collinear phase velocity vectors interfere to produce this nonlinear effect. Even-numbered iterations will produce their modulation products, baseband and high frequency, as reflected emissions from the target. Odd-numbered iterations will produce their modulation products as reflected emissions off the emitter.

This effect still holds when the emitter and the reflector are not parallel, though due to diffraction effects the baseband products of each iteration will originate from a different location each time, with the originating location corresponding to the path of the reflected high frequency self-modulation products.

These harmonic copies are largely attenuated by the natural losses at those higher frequencies when propagating through air.

Attenuation of ultrasound in air

The Figure provided in^[25] provided an estimation of the attenuation that the ultrasound would suffer as it propagated through air. The figures from this graph correspond to completely linear propagation, and the exact effect of the nonlinear demodulation phenomena on the attenuation of the ultrasonic carrier waves in air was not considered. There is an interesting dependence on humidity. Nevertheless, a 50 kHz wave can be seen to suffer an attenuation level in the order of 1dB per meter at one atmosphere of pressure.

Safe use of high levels of ultrasound

For the nonlinear effect to occur relatively high intensity ultrasonics are required. The SPL involved was typically greater than 100dB of ultrasound at a nominal distance of 1m from the face of the ultrasonic transducer.^{[citation needed]} Exposure to more intense ultrasound over 140dB^{[citation needed]} near the audible range (20–40 kHz) can lead to a syndrome involving manifestations of nausea, headache, tinnitus, pain, dizziness and fatigue,^[19] but this is around 100 times the 100dB level cited above, and is generally not a concern. Dr Joseph Pompei of Audio Spotlight has published data showing that their product generates ultrasonic sound pressure levels around 130 dB (at 60 kHz) measured at 3 meters.^[26]

The UK's independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) produced a 180 page report on the health effects of human exposure to ultrasound and infrasound in 2010. The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) published their report, which recommended an exposure limit for the general public to airborne ultrasound sound pressure levels (SPL) of 100 dB (at 25 kHz and above).^[27]

OSHA specifies a safe ceiling value of ultrasound as 145dB SPL exposure at the frequency range used by commercial systems in air, as long as there is no possibility of contact with the transducer surface or coupling medium (i.e. submerged).^[28] This is several times the highest levels used by commercial Audio Spotlight systems, so there is a significant margin for safety^{[citation needed]}. In a review of international acceptable exposure limits Howard et al. (2005)^[29] noted the general agreement amongst standards organizations, but expressed concern with the decision by United States of America’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to increase the exposure limit by an additional 30 dB under some conditions (equivalent to a factor of 1000 in intensity^[30]).

For frequencies of ultrasound from 25 to 50 kHz, a guideline of 110dB has been recommended by Canada, Japan, the USSR, and the International Radiation Protection Agency, and 115dB by Sweden^[31] in the late 1970s to early 1980s, but these were primarily based on subjective effects. The more recent OSHA guidelines above are based on ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists) research from 1987.

Lawton(2001)^[32] reviewed international guidelines for airborne ultrasound in a report published by the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive, this included a discussion of the guidelines issued by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), 1988. Lawton states “This reviewer believes that the ACGIH has pushed its acceptable exposure limits to the very edge of potentially injurious exposure”. It should be noted that the ACGIH document also mentioned the possible need for hearing protection.

Use in politics

There are rumors that this technology has been used to send information to candidates during live debates. The sharp sound gradient can be used to send information to a receiver without disturbing the nearby microphone. This was first reported during the infamous Romney Whisper^[33]—which NBC later identified was simply an audience member picked up by an "open mike" in the broadcast mix, and was not audible to the candidates.^[34]

See also

• Ultrasound
• Directional Sound
• Infrasound
• parametric array

Further resources

USS Patent 6778672 filed on 17 August 2004 describes an HSS system for using ultrasound to:-

• Direct distinct 'in-car entertainment' directly to passengers in different positions.
• Shape the airwaves in the vehicle to deaden unwanted noises.

References

1. ^ 105th AES Conv, Preprint 4853, 1998
2. ^ ^{a b c} Yoneyama, Masahide; Jun Ichiroh, Fujimoto (1983). "The audio spotlight: An application of nonlinear interaction of sound waves to a new type of loudspeaker design". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 73 (5): 1532–1536. Bibcode 1983ASAJ...73.1532Y. doi:10.1121/1.389414. 
3. ^ AudioSpotlight web site
4. ^ ABC news 21 August 2006
5. ^ http://www.parametricsound.com/AboutUs/HistoryandBackground.aspx
6. ^ Corporation, Bonnier (1997-12). Popular Science. http://books.google.com/?id=2Jq4pj0woMMC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=popular+science+best+of+what's+new+1997#v=onepage&q=popular%20science%20best%20of%20what's%20new%201997&f=false. 
7. ^ "Inventor Wins $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Revolutionizing Acoustics" (Press release). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2004-04-18. http://web.mit.edu/invent/n-pressreleases/n-press-05LMP.html. Retrieved 2007-11-14. 
8. ^ http://www.lradx.com/site/content/view/369/55/
9. ^ Executive quotes from ATC.
10. ^ "超指向性音響システム「ここだけ」新製品 本格的に発売開始" (Press release). 2007-07-26. http://www.mee.co.jp/kaisyaan/press/prs070726.html. Retrieved 2008-11-23. 
11. ^ AudioBeam
12. ^ Audiobeam discontinued
13. ^ ^{a b} Pompei, F. Joseph (1999). "The use of airborne ultrasonics for generating audible sound beams". Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 47 (9): 726–731. 
14. ^ Westervelt, P. J. (1963). "Parametric acoustic array". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 35 (4): 535–537. Bibcode 1963ASAJ...35..535W. doi:10.1121/1.1918525. 
15. ^ Bellin, J. L. S.; Beyer, R. T. (1962). "Experimental investigation of an end-fire array". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 34 (8): 1051–1054. Bibcode 1962ASAJ...34.1051B. doi:10.1121/1.1918243. 
16. ^ Mary Beth, Bennett; Blackstock, David T. (1974). "Parametric array in air". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 57 (3): 562–568. Bibcode 1975ASAJ...57..562B. doi:10.1121/1.380484. 
17. ^ Muir, T. G.; Willette, J. G. (1972). "Parametric acoustic transmitting arrays". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 52 (5): 1481–1486. Bibcode 1972ASAJ...52.1481M. doi:10.1121/1.1913264. 
18. ^ http://www.coolmath.com/decibels1.htm. Everyday Sound Pressure Levels.
19. ^ ^{a b} http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/radiation/safety-code_24-securite/index_e.html Guidelines for the safe use of ultrasound: Part II - Industrial and Commercial applications. Non-Ionizing Radiation Section Bureau of Radiation and Medical Devices Department of National Health and Welfare
20. ^ Jacqueline Naze, Tjøtta; Tjøtta, Sigve (1980). "Nonlinear interaction of two collinear, spherically spreading sound beams". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 67 (2): 484–490. Bibcode 1980ASAJ...67..484T. doi:10.1121/1.383912. 
21. ^ Jacqueline Naze, Tjotta; Tjotta, Sigve (1981). "Nonlinear equations of acoustics, with application to parametric acoustic arrays". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 69 (6): 1644–1652. Bibcode 1981ASAJ...69.1644T. doi:10.1121/1.385942. 
22. ^ Kurganov, Alexander; Noelle, Sebastian; Petrova, Guergana (2001). "Semidiscrete central-upwind schemes for hyperbolic conservation laws and hamilton-jacobi equations". Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal on Scientific Computing 23 (3): 707–740. doi:10.1137/S1064827500373413. 
23. ^ Berktay, H. O. (1965). "Possible exploitation of nonlinear acoustics in underwater transmitting applications". Journal of Sound and Vibration 2 (4): 435–461. Bibcode 1965JSV.....2..435B. doi:10.1016/0022-460X(65)90122-7. 
24. ^ Kite, Thomas D.; Post, John T.; Hamilton, Mark F. (1998). "Parametric array in air: Distortion reduction by preprocessing". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2 (5): 1091–1092. Bibcode 1998ASAJ..103.2871K. doi:10.1121/1.421645. 
25. ^ Bass, H. E.; Sutherland, L. C.; Zuckerwar, A. J.; Blackstock, D. T.; Hester, D. M. (1995). "Atmospheric absorption of sound: Further developments". Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 97 (1): 680–683. Bibcode 1995ASAJ...97..680B. doi:10.1121/1.412989. 
26. ^ Pompei, F Joseph (Sept 1999). "The Use of Airborne Ultrasonics for Generating Audible Sound Beams". Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 47 (9): pp 728. Fig. 3. http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=12092. Retrieved 19 November 2011. 
27. ^ AGNIR (2010). Health Effects of Exposure to Ultrasound and Infrasound. Health Protection Agency, UK.. p. 167-170. http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1265028759369. 
28. ^ Noise and Hearing Conservation Technical Manual Chapter: Noise and Health Effects (App I:D)
29. ^ Howard et al. (2005). "A Review of Current Ultrasound Exposure Limits". The J. Occupational Health and Safety of Australia and New Zealand 21 (3): 253-257. http://data.mecheng.adelaide.edu.au/avc/publications/public_papers/2005/ultrasound.pdf. 
30. ^ Leighton, Tim (2007). "What is Ultrasound?". Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 93 (1-3): pp 69. doi:doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2006.07.026. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079610706000812. Retrieved 16 November 2011. 
31. ^ Safety Code 24. Guidelines for the Safe Use of Ultrasound: Part II Industrial and Commercial Applications - Guidelines for Safe Use
32. ^ Lawton (2001). Damage to human hearing by airborne sound of very high frequency or ultrasonic frequency. Health & Safety Executive, UK.. pp. 9-10. ISBN ISBN 0 7176 2019 0. http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_pdf/2001/crr01343.pdf. 
33. ^ "The Romney Whisper Mystery". http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/01/25/the-romney-whisper-mystery. 
34. ^ "That Taxes Whisper". http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/25/609835.aspx. 

External links

• ABC News article - use of sound at 2004 Republican National Convention
• Audio Spotlight
• BBC Radio 3 pioneers 'Audio Spotlights' in TV campaign
• Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics article
• Have you heard the Audio Spotlight? - from the Boston Globe
• Holosonics
• Hypersonic Sound
• S.F. City Hall Makes a Joyful Noise
• Wired NextFest