An Israeli technology firm has debuted a new desktop device that beams sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones, like a personal sound bubble.
SoundBeamer 1.0 from Noveto locates and tracks the user’s ear position, sending audio waves to create small pockets of sound waves.
The tech will allow office workers to listen to music or conference calls without interrupting colleagues and let anyone play a game, film or music minus headphones without it being heard by anyone else in the vicinity.
The desktop device, which can be paired to a device via Bluetooth, will be ready for consumers to buy in time for Christmas next year.
‘Until now, there have been two ways to hear audio – out loud and publicly via speakers, or quietly and privately with headphones,’ the company says on its website.
‘At Noveto, we’re introducing a third and new way to listen using a patented technology we call SoundBeaming.
‘This is an entirely new type of sensory listening that will change the way people experience audio.’
The speaker emits ultrasonic sound waves – those outside the range of human hearing.
To make them audible for the user but not anyone else, a 3D sensing module built into the hardware locates and tracks the position of the user’s ears in real time.
At this point, the ultrasonic waves converge into small pockets of sound just outside the ears.
Here, the sound can be heard again as normal acoustic waves without disturbing others in the vicinity and freeing the user of annoying headphones.
‘Move your head in any direction and the two sound pockets will magically follow,’ Noveto says.
The firm has provided Associated Press with a demo of the desktop prototype of its device before its launch.
Associated Press called it ‘a listening sensation straight out of a sci-fi movie’ with 3D sound that feels like ‘it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them’.
In a Noveto demonstration conducted via Zoom from Tel Aviv, Noveto product manager Ayana Wallwater was unable to hear the sound of gunshots on a gaming demo while hearing the reactions of people trying the tech for the first time.
‘Most people just say, “wow, I really don´t believe it”,’ she said.
‘You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it… it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you.’
It’s also possible for users to move out of the beam’s path and hear nothing at all, which creates a ‘surreal experience’, according to Associated Press.
‘You don’t need to tell the device where you are – it’s not streaming to one exact place,’ Wallwater said.
‘It follows you wherever you go so it’s personally for you – follows you, plays what you want inside your head.
‘This is what we dream of – a world where we get the sound you want.
‘You don’t need to disturb others and others don’t get disturbed by your sound but you can still interact with them.’
While the concept of sound beaming is not new, Noveto was the first to launch the technology and their SoundBeamer 1.0 desktop device will be the first branded consumer product.
Noveto CEO Christophe Ramstein said a ‘smaller, sexier’ version of the prototype will be ready for consumer release in time for Christmas 2021.
‘You know, I was trying to think how we compare sound beaming with any other inventions in history,’ he said.
‘And I think the only one that came to mind is the first time I tried the iPod I was like, “Oh, my God. What’s that?”,’ said Ramstein.
‘I think sound beaming is something that is as disruptive as that – there´s something to be said about it doesn’t exist before.’
