A new technology developed by Disney Research transmits sound through the user’s body and delivers it to the recipient when physical contact is made.
Referred to as “Ishin-Den-Shin”, which is a Japanese mantra that translates to, “What the mind thinks, the heart transmits” (represents unspoken mutual understanding), the device uses a standard microphone to record audio, then converts the data into an inaudible signal that gets transmitted through the body of the person holding the device. When that person touches another person’s earlobe, an organic speaker is formed, and the recording becomes audible.
The technology recently received an honorable mention at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.
Specifics behind technology
The group used a Shure 55 microphone connected to a computer’s sound card and designed to start recording as soon as sounds of amplitude higher than a set threshold were sensed. The card then created a loop out of the recording, and sent it back to an amplification driver. The driver then converted the recorded sound signal into a high-voltage, low-current inaudible signal (
The inaudible signal can be transported from body to body using any physical contact. “Secrets, messages, and whispers can then be transmitted from person to person in physical contact with each other,” the group writes on their website. “Bodies become a broadcasting medium for intimate, physical, sound communication.”
Story via: disneyresearch.com
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