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Why you might soon think you're hearing things

canada.com — A technology that beams sound directly into people's ears has advertisers salivating, but as Vito Pilieci writes, critics fear yet another invasion of privacy.

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  • Loornadune, on 05/13/2008, -3/+32No thanks. Keep your thoughts to yourself please.
    • Excen, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2That´s what I said! The coke dealers in the Red-Light District of Amsterdam pioneered the concept behind this technology, so I hope some Nigerian gets a cut of the profits.
    • known, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3Is this technology similar to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Report_%28fi ...
      • Waterrat, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2"This prevents the noise, it doesn't add to it,"

        Excuse me?
        if an unwanted sound cones into my head,IT IS NOISE! End of discussion!
    • OwdenBowden, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1We have ear pieces for our phones to make us all look as if we are talking to ourselves and now we have advertisers sending messages directly to our ears making us all think we are crazy hearing voices in our heads? Wow - we have officially become on Phucked up society.
    • nikkesen, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2So... how would it work for the deaf? I mean, if we can already hear things... what would the deaf do?
  • DonSlice, on 05/13/2008, -16/+15This may be a stupid question: But how is it invasion of privacy if they're making us hear things?
    • Synyk, on 05/13/2008, -0/+36I think they just meant that exterior noise is ignorable at a certain level...you can still be in your bubble walking downtown... but now it seems these things sound like if there was "a voice in your head"...so it sort of invades your personal space
      • Waterrat, on 05/13/2008, -0/+9 I'd not say sort of invades your personal space,I'd say it definitely invades your personal space. This has options for abuse by ad mongers written all over it.
        I already hate ads and advertisers,this just ups my hate level.
    • DarkPrincess74, on 05/13/2008, -0/+45The ability to hear your own thoughts in your own head is considered a right of privacy. Or at least it should be. I know I don't want to be walking down the street and be bombarded with voices in my own head like some hacky website.
    • synaesthesia, on 05/13/2008, -0/+26I have a 'bubble' that I consider my private, personal space. Its rude to intrude into someones personal space without going through the appropriate social procedures (greeting, introduction, etc) and thus a rude invasion of privacy to beam aural messages directly into someone's ear.
    • evanfrey, on 05/13/2008, -10/+5Yeah, they should stick to using loudspeakers to generate announcements. When I'm in a store looking for stuff I much prefer to have loud annoying announcements made so EVERYone can hear them!

      Additionally, the argument of "well I can see how this can be used for evil, so we should stop it" can apply to other things such as bittorrent, mp3s, hell even the internet. People are so quick to dismiss a technical achievement as "evil" without putting any thought behind it or measuring it up to other advancements. You are all just drones (mostly).
      • carpespasm, on 05/13/2008, -1/+5or perhaps they're just concerned about the implications of a company who's only motivation (legally) is profit using this sort of thing in a way that would be unwelcome to many people. I'm sure that as tech-savvy as the crowd here normally is that if they came up with a useful and beneficial way to use this (voice overs at specific points in a museum?) then we wouldn't be decrying this as the makings of the devil. just because some people are concerned doesn't mean they want it declared evil and wiped out before it gets a chance to take over the world.
        • passiverebel, on 05/13/2008, -1/+1You should check out some other peoples comments, I think a lot of people here want the technology wiped out.
          "They'd better build the machine to withstand multiple hits with a sledgehammer." -scabbers

          Maybe the problem is that people only read the headline before commenting. They mention this being used in museums and libraries such that the device is being used in a way to reduce the number of messages you hear. As opposed to bombarding people with mesages over loudspeakers, as pointed out by evanfrey above.
      • coyote1284, on 05/13/2008, -1/+2Buzz off
  • xptweakerntn, on 05/13/2008, -11/+4We're both skitsofrinic I feel, say how many voices you hear.
    • synaesthesia, on 05/13/2008, -1/+9Did you mean schizophrenic?
      • brazenreality, on 05/13/2008, -2/+1OH BOY YOU SURE OWNED HIM!!!!

        *HIGHFIVE*
    • TheVirus, on 05/13/2008, -0/+10Hukt on fonix reelie werked fer mie
    • bjornski, on 05/13/2008, -0/+5You seem to be confusing schizophrenia with MPD. But I couldn't tell because of your bad attempt at forming a sentence.
  • scabbers, on 05/13/2008, -0/+85They'd better build the machine to withstand multiple hits with a sledgehammer.
    • RealJimShady, on 05/13/2008, -0/+28I totally agree. If the coke machine starts making a fizzing noise and says "I bet you're really thirsty, would you like a drink?". I'm gonna be all like, "NO! WOULD YOU LIKE TO ***** OFF COKE MACHINE!!!???? NOW GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!" SLAM!
  • sfacets, on 05/13/2008, -2/+70If advertisers tried to do something like that, I for one will not stand for it, and will destroy their device.
    • AmusedToDeath, on 05/13/2008, -11/+2Oh puh-lease - you internet tough guys are something else. You'll probably do what everybody else does and just grumble and walk on by.
    • cJw314, on 05/13/2008, -1/+13Assuming, of course, you can locate said device - which I'm sure they would make impossible.
  • neurotap, on 05/13/2008, -1/+2internet works, site does not. mirror please.
  • spacecheese, on 05/13/2008, -3/+3i'll just rock my headphones at the mall then..
    • CeeAyy, on 05/13/2008, -0/+6Reread the article, you missed something.
  • smackkmonkey, on 05/13/2008, -0/+28How loud are these things capable of blasting into our ears?
    I can just imagine future abuse from some jackass beaming a jet engine in my brain.
    • DarkPrincess74, on 05/13/2008, -0/+16Or some business, like so many kicked up decibel commercials are now. This brings up a good point though that people will definitely abuse it in one way or another.
    • synaesthesia, on 05/13/2008, -0/+19I can imagine future armies beaming 'ALLAH WILLS YOU TO SURRENDER" into insurgent fighters. Honestly, the possibilities for this are RIPE for abuse, right up there with the pain ray gun.
      • gta3uzi, on 05/13/2008, -1/+4And you can bet either us or the Commies'll be the first to abuse it.
    • Synyk, on 05/13/2008, -0/+10and they can do so without anyone knowing, that's the freaky part
      at court..."I SWEAR! It was a jet engine noise beamed into my ear!!!"
    • antao, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3543980109 ...
  • alienunknown, on 05/13/2008, -1/+23I hope they don't aim this thing at anyone that is schizophrenic.
    • stonedthot, on 05/13/2008, -2/+5Yeah, and they claim cannabis is bad for mental health - hypocritical bastards - this ***** should definetly be illegal. Must be part of the great psychiatrists conspiracy to make more people crazy, as prophesized of in the holy books of COS. All hail RON!
  • dimplemonkey, on 05/13/2008, -3/+30tin hats, I got your tin hats, here, $25 gets ya' a genuine tin hat, perfect for thwarting, blocking and bypassing extemporaneous signals that exist outside your medulla oblongata...
    • carpespasm, on 05/13/2008, -1/+8excuse me sir, are you hats made of real tin or aluminum?
      • grimward, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4he didn't say! he's faking it! GET HIM BOYS!
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3This was a tin-foil-hat theory at one time. People were suggesting that a lot of people could be convinced of a "Voice of God" with a technology to make sound seem like it was coming from inside their heads. It was suggested that this might use microwaves to "move blocks of air" -- that would pretty much make it seem like a cloud was speaking and would probably be pretty loud. That might be some cross-over from weather manipulation projects and this one.

      Supersonics kind of covers the "voice in your head" technology. So this might have been a skunk works thing. They decided to let it out to a company for advertising, I guess. Money trumps propaganda.

      I just imagine, how many people could have been driven nuts with this if the information were not released. Use it on a few protesters in a crowd "we are out to get you -- yeah, you in the tie die shirt." Or in a church; "Give all your money to the pastor -- you will be rewarded as you are chosen..." I'm guessing there are going to be a few people who come forward saying; "this happened to me."

      They will of course, be called Schizophrenic tin-foil-hat wearers. Because voices in your head are totally ridiculous. Everyone knows that.
  • hiddenlawyer, on 05/13/2008, -0/+39If I come across any of those units transmitting that *****, I will break it. No joke, I will find every single one and break it. I don't care if I get arrested or sued. I might even form a group that does nothing but break these things.
  • andejp12, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4Wait a minute, hasn't this stuff been talked about for years now? I remember 'hearing' about it on TechTV quite some time ago.
    • Wakkyweed, on 05/13/2008, -1/+1Yeah, this one is years old. Buried.
  • Metasquares, on 05/13/2008, -1/+11This is the sort of thing people are not going to stand.
  • DeFex, on 05/13/2008, -4/+20Religions could start using it to convince the sheep they are hearing god "you will be blessed if you leave $200 in the collection basket"

    Time to start working on a portable EMP gun.
  • vikki77, on 05/13/2008, -0/+7How will this work for the hearing impaired? I wonder if this could be useful to those with inner ear damage.
    • lightningrod220, on 05/13/2008, -0/+7I've experienced one of these already... it completely wigged out my digital hearing aids, causing strange compression distortion on all of the sound I heard. Really pissed me off.
    • sbassoli, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3Negative, the article is actually misleading. The waves don't crash against you and reorganize. From their website (http://www.holosonics.com/technology.html):

      "Of course, the ultrasound, which contains frequencies far outside our range of hearing, is completely inaudible. But as the ultrasonic beam travels through the air, the inherent properties of the air cause the ultrasound to distort (change shape) in a predictable way. This distortion gives rise to frequency components in the audible bandwidth, which can be accurately predicted, and therefore precisely controlled. By generating the correct ultrasonic signal, we can create, within the air itself, essentially any sound desired."

      So it's just a certain radius in which the sound is audible. The probable effect is that you feel like you're surrounded by sound opposed to actually hearing the sound in your head.
  • RichStradler, on 05/13/2008, -1/+4An advertising fad that will soon tire or a a good alternative for driving terrorists totally mad during interogations?
  • RealJimShady, on 05/13/2008, -0/+13Do not want!
  • clumsyjim, on 05/13/2008, -1/+3No wonder marketing's interested - wouldn't suggestions from this be approaching a hypnotic level? I wonder if they've tested people's susceptibility to suggestions made this way...
  • robthom, on 05/13/2008, -1/+6Awesome. The power of greed to drive the sciences triumphs again.
  • Ikulus, on 05/13/2008, -3/+16The article sets the wrong tone at the start by talking about the marketing potential. And while I agree, they should make sure the device is sledgehammer-proof, I'm sure a lot of people didn't read further down for some of the more practical applications this amazing technology provides.

    1. Any private terminal in a public space (e.g. museum tour, libraries, shopping, bank machines, grocery stores) can now broadcast a message to the user without them putting on headphones.

    2. The article also suggested ambulance sirens that only broadcast to the people on the street and not the people in their homes.

    3. If the quality is good enough, how about a club or party with loud music that can only be heard in one room? Or more generally, use this in your apartment to avoid noisy neighbor complaints at 2am.

    4. Hands-free cellphone calls while driving, without bluetooth.
    • cJw314, on 05/13/2008, -1/+16What if I'm in a public place and want to listen to my MP3 player? They should be able to override that with their adverts? The ***** hell they should. >.
      • Ikulus, on 05/13/2008, -1/+1Well your ears would be blocked by ear buds or headphones, so presumably that wouldn't work.
      • duality, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1You make an interesting point. If this technology catches on, you can bet that sales of noise-canceling headphones will experience a proportional spike.
    • krnldmp, on 05/13/2008, -1/+3It's not going to work that well. You can't do most of the nifty things with it you're dreaming about. So forget it. Seriously.
    • Enochrewt, on 05/15/2008, -0/+0Like you, I think the tone of the article is wrong, but the tech is going to do amazing things like the things listed. I can only imagine going to a club and being able to have an in-depth conversation at the bar instead of shouting at each other over the music.

      I'm not really for more government, but I'm sure there will be all kinds of laws about these things, like they can't be used on public sidewalks, Stores/businesses must post a sign outside saying these speakers are in use, etc.

      And don't forget, if the public as a whole doesn't like it, it will go away. When a retailer gets boycotted by the public-at-large because they over-use these things, the rest of business world will stand up and take notice. Water finds it's own level.
  • zohaibusman, on 05/13/2008, -0/+11what if i don't want to hear??
    to many sounds already to hear
    • Waterrat, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2 They don't give a frothy fart if you don't want to hear it.
      Ad mongers will FORCE you to hear it whether you like it or not.
      Call it want it is,mind rape.
  • ljsmithx, on 05/13/2008, -2/+5If this becomes commercial, I will kill myself.
  • Jonjonr6, on 05/13/2008, -1/+2It won't be that long before the advertising techniques in Minority Report are in production. Those weren't new ideas in that movie. They've been working on this type of individually targeted advertisement technology for quite some time.
  • DavidGX, on 05/13/2008, -0/+16Any product or service that advertises with this = a product or service I won't buy.
    • BostonBoston, on 05/13/2008, -3/+2Oh, yes you will.

      You are getting sleepy David, your eyes are getting heavy. Reach into your wallet and get your credit card. Now walk to the cash register...
  • WudWar, on 05/13/2008, -4/+1NO *****, it's called a SPEAKER!
  • krnldmp, on 05/13/2008, -0/+5Advertisers already have dozens of ways to talk at you resulting in billions of dollars in annual sales of ***** nobody really needs. In this age the ability of a consumer to find exactly what they need pretty much means there's no need for advertising At ALL except to ***** bilk you. Keep that in mind when you're getting talked at.
    • Waterrat, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2Good point.
      Anyone who blasts bs in my head won't get a penny from me.
  • Goombellaofgoom, on 05/13/2008, -2/+1Maybe this is what Obi-wan used to sneak past those stormtroopers...
  • manifest020, on 05/13/2008, -0/+9I think it's a great technology, until marketers get ahold of it and complete misuse the technology just like everything else. We are all ready bombarded by noise that naturally raises our stress levels, now they can beam whatever they want into my head? No thanks. That's not only an invasion of my privacy, but it's an invasion of my sanity and peace of mind.
  • krnldmp, on 05/13/2008, -0/+5Considering the Extent to which existing advertising technology jacks up the price of goods and services (oh Believe me pal, You pay for it) and degrades the environment the greatest advances you could make would be in outlawing most of it, not creating new and more advanced ways to ***** with your concentration and waste your time, money, and world.
  • itcoll, on 05/13/2008, -2/+0thats cool ........... but why the f**k should we hear that ???
    it ll be nice if they atleast beam out mp3 s .
  • roosterjack, on 05/13/2008, -0/+5I'm not interested...should they insist...I'll shoved it up their a$$.
  • dezwald, on 05/13/2008, -2/+3the worst part is that Tom Cruise is buying these devices by the thousands.
  • ghostfaceDX, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    i swear to god if they start beaming advertisements into my head i will go bat ***** insane
  • atarijedi, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3It works by heterodyning an audio signal with an ultrasonic carrier. I've seen some tests done at 51kHz. Worked pretty well. Sound was tinny though, this seems like it would only be good for the Voice range of frequencies, and not actual music. Although it was just a test.
    • atarijedi, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1Oh yeah, you must also use a speaker that can reproduce high frequencies well, we had built an electrostatic speaker, so it would be thin and portable. :)

      Unfortunately, we never got around to testing how loud it could get before it would become a "weapon".
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1I really don't understand who goes around digging down posts where someone is relating actual first-hand knowledge. I found atarijedi's comments at -1. Either someone thinks the post is in error, or they don't like actual knowledge -- either way it is informative.

      What is wrong with some of these diggers?
    • atarijedi, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0Thank you for bringing me out of the depths of negativity.
  • VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2008, -0/+4This may work like a "bone phone." Bone Phones have been on the market for some time as a way for you to listen to music without disturbing others -- or wearing out your ear drums. I don't know if the sound is a good quality or not. So, the ultrasonics are probably transmitting MOTION and not sound -- they don't "re-organize" the higher energy wave -- but the ultrasonics are powerful enough to be a carrier for the compression wave that would create a sound on hard objects, and the ultrasonics would then be disbursed. The hard bones in your body, then become the "speaker" in a sense, vibrating as if you were pressed against a loud woofer. -- you could even target an object to transmit the sound in a room -- it might be tuned to be transparent to glass, not sure on that.

    This may work better for the hearing impaired, because their problem is often with worn-out hair fibers in their ears -- not with the nerve cells. But it will play havoc on hearing aids, because the plastic in that device will be vibrating at a higher frequency than your bones.

    I don't think pets are going to like this too much. It may also annoy teenagers who have not yet burned out their sensitivity to higher pitches. For years, I used to be bothered by florescent lights and certain computer screens that were at 60hz or lower -- as their high pitched whine would bother the heck out of my ears. I've only met a few other people who could hear it. But a florescent light that was about to burn out was LOUD. Either they changed these electronics because they were trying to reduce the EM fields (because Europe had restrictions on these), or my ears are not as sensitive as they once were. But, I'm guessing there will be about 1% of the people who will hear the ultrasonics and be severely annoyed. This may only be used for emergencies or as a gimmick -- it may not work for night clubs and entertainment because there may be a lot of acoustic side effects.

    I'd also imagine that anyone with a plate in their head is going to get acoustic distortions -- I'm sure these ultrasonics work best on bone.
    • atarijedi, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0These devices usually sound tinny, and the carrier frequency is usually way above any frequencies that any animals use, the tests I was involved in ran at about 51kHz. We never did figure out how the body demodulated the sound because we were EE students and don't know much about Biology. If you read up on heterodyning (unless you already know) this is how we created this effect, we heterodyned an audio signal with a 51kHz carrier and fed it into an ESL.

      What you said about the ultrasonics transmitting motion was lost on me, isn't sound the motion of air?

      I do know that with our device, you could bounce the beam off objects, like a hard wall, it would bounce like light off a mirror.
  • nowhereelse, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3A little of the wisdom of Bill Hicks: "By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising...kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I'm doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan's little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show. Seriously, I know the marketing people: 'There's gonna be a joke comin' up.' There's no *****' joke. Suck a tail pipe, hang yourself...borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something...rid the world of your evil *****' presence."
  • randal2k, on 05/13/2008, -0/+3I agree, a device like this has a large potential if used for anything other then Marketing. If i am walking along and get beamed a message about a new (insert whatever here), they better be prepared for one ranting person, after all.. I am easily offended, and have kids ;)
  • ChinezePanda, on 05/13/2008, -2/+1They do this... and I am suing for a hell of a lot of money.
  • jessehadden, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2Hmm... if only there were a credulous president in office, who would obey whatever any voice in his head tells him to do... and if only there were people willing to exploit that... ahh, it could never happen. ;-)
  • GREEDOnvrFIRED, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1I believe Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon talked about ads being beamed directly to you if you walked with in range. Though the voices HE talked about may have been beamed not to your ears but to your brain. I remember a character avoiding certain areas so as to avoid the "out of thin air" sales pitches.
  • shibbiy, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0I hope they will also release glasses to go with that to avoid advertisement placement areas.
  • Antaries, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1I say no. There are enough people driving around blasting music, home stereos, traffic, construction, and people. Do we need more noise?
  • FishThePirate, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0They will most likely be placing them on top of corners of buildings that overlook busy squares or streets. In which case we'll either have to climb the buildings and physically break them down, or some clever person will think of a good way to do it from the ground.
  • bincoder, on 05/13/2008, -0/+2I would call it distracting. I would also call it assault. Being distracted at the wrong time while walking around the city can get you hit by a bus. Can you say 'lawsuit' ? How about formal charges at the local police department? How about I play a 200 watt stero inside your store.
    Still want to beam your spam into my ears?
  • artemisn, on 05/14/2008, -0/+0I pray the day does not come when my sleep is interrupted by the promising cholesterol spewing out of The King's kitchen.

    If anything, we'd have a lot more weird serial killers. Who remembers the campus sniper and the crazy dude with the handmade tank?
  • JudgeMonkey, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I kind of like the idea of the night club though. It would be awesome to look inside and just see people dancing like crazy to no music, hearing people just shouting to one another over the quiet rustle of other patrons.
    Also this could be kind of fun for, as they mentioned in the article, things related to scary settings or ghosts. Could be very fun in haunted houses.
    All technology can have a place, the problem is it can also have a bad place. As others have said, I'll find and smash ones that broadcast lame commercials at me.
  • zerocool1990, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Yeah that's just what I need, another voice in my head.
  • bryan107, on 05/15/2008, -0/+0lol.... I agree with Zerocool...
    http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=REucDXcF53Y
  • Coolgamer, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1This reminds me of the sci-fi story where orders to kill people were beamed into peoples thoughts as they slept.
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