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‘Audible enclaves’ could enable private listening without headphones. (www.psu.edu)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/technology

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It may someday be possible to listen to a favorite podcast or song without disturbing the people around you, even without wearing headphones. In a new advancement in audio engineering, a team of researchers led by Yun Jing, professor of acoustics in the Penn State College of Engineering, has precisely narrowed where sound is perceived by creating localized pockets of sound zones, called audible enclaves. In an enclave, a listener can hear sound, while others standing nearby cannot, even if the people are in an enclosed space, like a vehicle, or standing directly in front of the audio source.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 20 hours ago

Induced schizophrenia anyone?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I've found that bone conducting headphones work well for this. They are even secure enough for running and climbing.

[–] ProfessorProteus 2 points 13 hours ago

I've always been very curious about this technology, but I imagine that they wouldn't be as good at transmitting high frequencies. I'm no audio engineer so it's only a hunch of course. Do they sound comparable to a decent pair of buds in the ear?

[–] unphazed 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

See! No headphones!

[–] Mbourgon 1 points 13 hours ago

WHAT?!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 21 hours ago

This could be very handy to be able to still be notifiable while not driving your family crazy.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Probably won’t do anything about those who actively want everyone else around to hear what they’re listening to.

[–] dance_ninja 5 points 1 day ago

Makes me think of the episode of Batman Beyond called "Shriek."

[–] rottingleaf 2 points 21 hours ago

I just took a short look at the JXTA specification ; JXTA is abandoned and this is the progress people are pursuing. So sad really.

I mean, yes, comfort is good, yes, this is like a device from Asimov's Foundation, but the problem is kinda solved by headphones already. And yes, it's cool.

(If someone doesn't know what JXTA is - it's Sun's standard for p2p applications, of the "progress of the past that was left unfinished and forgotten" kind, and looking at ZFS, which is a similarly comprehensive thing for filesystems, I have no doubts the world would be better were it finished.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Sooooo many potential applications!