AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING

A SEMINAR REPORT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

by

WINSTON NETTO (SEE 1697)

SCMS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (Affiliated to M.G University) VIDYA NAGAR, PALISSERY, KARUKUTTY ERNAKULAM-683 582 JULY 2009

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar work entitled

AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING

was presented by WINSTON NETTO SEE - 1697 of the Seventh semester Electrical and Electronics Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of B achelor of Technolo Degree in Ele ctrical and gy Electronics Engineering under Mahatma Gandhi University during the year 2009 2010 under my guidance at SCMS School of Engineering and Techno lo , Karukutty. gy

Faculty in Charge

Head of Department Electrical and Electronics Engineering

ACKNOWL EDGEMENT
It is with great enthusiasm and learning spirit that I bring out this seminar report. I also feel that its the right opportunity to acknowledge the support and guidance that came in for various quarters during the course of completion of my seminar. I express my gratitude to Head of Department (EEE) for rendering me all facilities and guiding me right through the end for the successful completion of the work. I express my gratitude to CHRISMOL PAUL, Grade-I Lecturer, EEE department for guiding me right through the end for the successful completion of the seminar. I am also obliged to the faculty of Electrical and Electronics Department, for giving me their timely suggestions in my venture. Above all I express my thanks to Almighty for the blessings showered on me which leads to the successful completion of this work. Despite the best efforts put in by me, it is possible that some unintentional errors might have eluded me. I shall acknowledge with any such errors if pointed out.

ABSTRACT
Audio spot lighting is a very recent technology that creates focused beams of sound similar to light beams coming out of a flashlight. By shining sound to one location, specific listeners can be targeted with sound without others nearby hearing it. It uses a non-linear acoustics for its working. But it is real and is better than any conventional loud speaker. This acoustic device comprises a speaker that fires inaudible ultrasound pulses with very small wavelength which act in a manner very similar to that of a narrow column. The ultra sound beam acts as an airborne speaker. Holosonic Research Labs invented the Audio Spotlight that is made of a sound processor, an amplifier and the transducer. This use ultrasound based solutions to beam sound into a focused beam. Audio spotlight can be either directed at a particular listener or to a point where it is reflected. The targeted or directed audio technology is going to a attain a huge commercial market in entertainment and consumer electronics and technology. Being the most recent and dramatic change in the way we perceive sound, audio spot light technology can do many miracles in various fields like, Home theatre audio system, Navy and military applications, museum displays etc. Thus audio spotlighting helps us to control where sound comes from and where it goes.

INDEX
SL NO.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION THEORY TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW RANGE OF HEARING WORKING BEAM DISPERSION ARCHITECTURE MODES OF LISTENING ADVANTAGES APPLICATIONS FUTURE OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING CONCLUSION REFERENCE

PAGE NO.
1 2 3 5 6 9 10 13 14 15 17 18 19

LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

FIGURE NAME
PROPAGAT ION OF SOUND BEAM CONVENT IONAL SPEAKERS AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING SPEAKERS RANGE OF HEARING AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING EMITTE R

PAGE NO.
2 4 4 5 6 7 9 11 10 12 13

DIRECTIVITY
COMPUTER SIMULAT ION OF SOUND BEAM DISPERSION OF SOUND BEAM BLOCK DIAGRAM

PARAMETRIC LOUDSPEAKER
DIRECTE C AND PROJECTE D AUD IO

INTRODUCTION

Hi-fi speakers range from piezoelectric tweeters to various kinds of mid-range speakers and woofers which generally rely on circuits ant large enclosures to produce quality sound, whether it dynamic, electrostatic or some other transducer - based design. Engineers have struggled for nearly a century to produce a speaker design with the ideal 2OHz - 2O,OOOHz capability of human hearing and also produce a narrow beam of audible sound. Audio spot lighting is a very recent technology that creates focused beams of sound similar to light beams coming out of a flash light. Specific listeners can be targeted with sound without others nearby hearing it, i.e. to focus the sound into a coherent and highly directional beam. It makes use of non-linearity property of air. The Audio spotlight developed by American Technology Corporation uses ultrasonic energy to create extremely narrow beams of sound that behaves like beam of light. Audio spotlight exploits the property of non-linearity of air. A device known as parametric array employs the non-linearity of the air to create audible by products from inaudible ultrasound, resulting in extremely directive and beam like sound. This source can projected about an area much like a spotlight and creates an actual specialized sound distant from a transducer. The ultrasound column acts as a airborne speaker, and as the beam moves through the air gradual distortion takes place in a predictable way. This gives rise to audible predicted and precisely controlled. componen ts that can be accurately

THEORY

The regular loudspeakers produce audible sound by directly moving the air molecules. The audible portions of sound tend to spread out in all directions from the point of origin. They do not travel as narrow beams. In fact the beam angle of audible sound is very wide, just about 360 degrees. This effectively means that the sound you hear will be propagated through the air equally in all directions. Convent ional loudspeakers suffer from amplitude distortions, harmonic distortion, inter - modulation distortion, phase distortion, crossover distortion, cone resonance etc. Some aspects of their mechanical aspects are mass, magnetic structure, enclosure design and cone construction. In order to focus sound into a narrow beam, you need to maintain a low beam angle that is dictated by wavelength. The smaller the wavelength, less the beam angle and hence, the more focused the sound. The beam angle also depends on the aperture size of the speaker. A large loudspeaker will focus the sound over a smaller area. If the source loudspeaker can be made several times bigger than the wavelength of the sound transmitted, then a finely focused beam can be created. The problem here is that this is not a very practical solution, thus the low beam angle can be achieved only by making the wavelength smaller and this can be achieved by making use of ultrasonic sound.

FIG 1 :F.JO SE PH POMPEI AT THE MIT LAB. PROPAGATION OF SOUND BEAM FROM AUDIO SPOTL IGHTING DEVICE.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

The technique of using a nonlinear interaction of high - frequency waves to generate low - frequency waves was originally pioneered by researchers developing underwater sonar techniques in 1960's. In 1975, an article cited the nonlinear effects occurring in air. Over the next two decades, several large companies including Panasonic and Ricoh attempted to develop a loudspeaker using this principle. They were successful in producing some sort of sound but with higher level of distortion (>50%). In 1990s, Woody Norris a Radar Technician solved the parametric problems of this technology. Audio spotlighting works by emitting harmless high frequency ultrasonic tones that human hear cannot hear. It uses ultrasonic energy to create extremely narrow beams of sound that behave like beams of light. Ultrasonic sound is that sound which have very small wavelength - in the millimeter range. These tones make use of non-linearity property of air to produce new tones that are within the range of human hearing which results in audible sound. The sound is created indirectly in air by down converting the ultrasonic energy into the frequency spectrum we can hear. In an audio spotlighting sound system there are no voice coils, cones or enclosures. The result is 'sound with a potential purity and fidelity which we attained never before'. Sound quality is no longer tied to speaker size. This sound system holds the promise of replacing convent ional speakers in homes, movie theaters and automobile - everywhere.

FIG 2: CONVENTIONAL SPEAKERS

FIG 3: AUDIO SPOTL IGHTING

RANGE OF HEARING

The human ear is sensitive to frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. If the range of human hearing is expressed as a percentage of shift from the lowest audible frequency to the highest it spans a range of 100,000 percent. No single loudspeaker element can operate efficiently over such a wide range of frequencies. Using this technology it is possible to design a perfect transducer which can work over a wide range of frequency which is audible to human hear.

FIG 4: RANGE OF HEARING

WORKING
The original low frequency sound wave such as human speech or a music is applied into an audio spotlight emitter device. This low frequency signal is frequency modulated with ultrasonic frequencies ranging from 21 kHz to 28 kHz. The output of the modul ator will be the modul ated form of original sound wave. Since ultrasonic frequency is used the wavelength of the combined signal will be in the order of few millimeters. Since the wavelength is smaller the beam angle will be around 3 degree, as a result the sound beam will be a narrow one with a small dispersion.

FIG 5: AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING EMITT ER

While the frequency modulated signal travels through the air, the nonlinearity property of air comes into action which slightly changes the sound wave. If there is a change in a sound wave, new sounds are formed within the wave. Therefore if we know how the air affects the sound waves, we can predict exactly what new frequencies (sounds) will be added into the sound wave by the air itself. The new sound signal generated within the ultrasonic sound wave will be corresponding to the original information signal with a frequency in the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz will be produced within the ultrasonic sound wave. Since we cannot hear the ultrasonic sound wave we only hear the new sounds that are formed by non - linear action of the air. Thus in an audio spotlighting there are no actual speakers that produces the sound but the ultrasonic envelope acts as the airborne speaker.

FIG 6: DIRECTIVITY

The new sound produced virtually has no distortions associated with it and faithful reproduct ion of sound is freed from bulky enclosures. There are no woofers or crossovers. This technology is similar in that you can direct the ultrasonic emitter towards a hard surface, a wall for instance and the listener perceives the sound as coming from the spot on the wall. The listener does not perceive the sound as emanating from the face of the transducer, but only form the reflection of the wall. For the maximum volume (sound level) that trade show use demands, it is recommended that the Audio Spotlight speaker, more accurately called a transducer, is mounted no more than 3 meters from the average listeners ears, or 5 meters in the air. The mounting hardware is constructed with a ball joint so that the Audio Spotlights are easily aimed wherever the sound is desired.

FIG 7: COMPUTE R SIMULATION OF SOUND BEAM

BEAM DISPERSION

FIG 8: DI SPERSION OF SOUND BEAM

Figure shows the dispersion of sound beam from an audio spotlighting emitter. Even after traveling a distance of 10m the beam covers only an area of 3.2 meter square.

COMPONENTS OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING SYSTEM 1. Power Supply. 2. Frequency oscillator. 3. Modulator. 4. Audio signal processor. 5. Microcontroller. 6. Ultrasonic amplifier. 7. Transducer.

FIG9: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AN AUDIO SPO LIGHTING SYSTEM

1. Power Supply: Like all electronic systems, the audio spotlighting system works off DC voltage. Ultrasonic amplifier requires 48V DC supply for its working and low voltage for microcontroller unit and other process management.

2. Frequency oscilla tor: The frequency oscillator generates ultrasonic frequency signals in the range of (21,000 Hz to 28,000 Hz) which is required for the modulat ion of information signals. 3. Modul ator: In order to convert the source signal material into ultrasonic signal a modulat ion scheme is required which is achieved through a modula tor. In addition, error correction is needed to reduce distortion without loss of efficiency. By using a DSB modulator the modulation index can be reduced to decrease distortion. 4. Audio signal processor: The audio signal is sent to electronic signal processor circuit where equalization and distortion control are performed in order to produce a good quality sound signal. 5. Microcon tr oll er: A dedicated microcontroller circuit takes care of the functional manage ment of the system. In the future version, it is expected that the whole process like functional management, signal processing, double side band modulat ion and even switch mode power supply would be effectively taken care of by a single embedded IC. 6. Ultrasoni c Ampli fier: High - efficiency ultrasonic power amplifiers amplifies the frequency modulated wave in order to match the impedance of the integrated transducers. So that the output of the emitter will be more powerful and can cover more distance.

7.

Transducer: It is 1.27 cm thick and 17" in diameter. It is capable of producing audibility up to 200 meters with better clarity of sound. It has the ability of real time sound reproduct ion with zero lag. It can be wall, overhead or flush mounted. These transducers are arranged in form of an array called parametric array in order to propagate the ultrasonic signals from the emitter and thereby to exploit the nonlinearity property of air.

FIG10: PARA MET RIC LOUDSPEAKER

MODES OF LISTENING
There are two modes of listening: 1. Direct Mode. 2. Projected Mode.

FIG11: DIR ECTE D AUDIO AND PROJ ECTED AUD IO Direct Mode: Direct mode requires a clear line of approach from the sound system unit to the point where the listener can hear the audio. To restrict the audio in a specific area this method is appropriate.

Proj ected or Virtual mode: This mode requires an unbroken line of approach from the emitter of audio spotlighting system, so the emitter is pointed at the spot where the is to be heard. For this mode of operation the sound beam from an emitter is made to reflect from a reflecting surface such as a wall surface or a diffuser surface. A virtual sound source creates an illusion of sound source that emanates from a surface or direction where no physical loudspeaker is present.

ADVANTAGES

1. Can focus sound only at the place you want. 2. Ultrasonic emitter devices are thin and flat and do not require a mounting cabinet. 3. The focused or directed sound travels much faster in a straight line than conventional
loudspeakers.

4. Dispersion can be controlled - very narrow or wider to cover more listening area. 5. Can reduce or eliminate the feedback from microphones. 6. Highly cost effective as the maintenance required is less as compared to conventional
loud speakers and have longer life span.

7. Requires only same power as required for regular speakers. 8. There is no lag in reproducing the sound.

APPLICATIONS

1. Au tomo biles:

Beam

alert

signals

can

be

directly

propagated

from

an

announce ment device in the dashboard to the driver. Presently Mercedes - Benz buses are fitted with audio spotlighting speakers so that individual travellers can enjoy the music of there on interest.

2. Retail sales: Provide targeted advertising directly at the point of purchase.

3. Safety officials: Portable audio spotlighting devices for communicating with a specific person in a crowd of people. 4. Public anno uncement: Highly focused announcement in noisy environments such as subways, airports, amusement parks, traffic intersections etc.

5. Emergency rescue. Rescuers can communica te with endangered people far from reach. 6. Entertainment system: In home theatre system rear speakers can be eliminated by the implementation of audio spotlighting and the properties of sound can be improved.

7. Museums: In museums audio spotlight can be used to describe about a particular object to a person standing in front it, so that the other person standing in front of another object will not be able to hear the description.

8. 9.

Military appli cation s. Ship - to - ship communicatio ns and shipboard announcements. Audio/Video conferencing . Project the audio from a conference in four different languages, forma single central device without the need for headphones.

10. Sound bullets: Jack the sound level 50 times the human threshold of pain, and an offshoot of audio spotlighting sound technology becomes a non-lethal weapon

FUTURE OF AUDIO SPOTL IGHTING

Even the best loudspeakers are subject to distortion and their omni directional sound is annoying to the people in the vicinity who do no wish to listen. Audio spotlighting system holds the promise of replacing convent ional speakers. It allows the user to control the direction of propagation of sound. The audio spotlight will force people to rethink their relationship with sound. Audio spotlighting really "put sound where you want it".

CONCLUSION
Au dio spotlighting is really go ing to make a revolution in sound

transmission and the user can decide the path in whi ch audio signal should propagate. Due to the unidirectional propagation it finds application in

large nu mber of fields. Au dio spotlighting system is go ing to shape the future of sound and will ser ve our ears with magical exp erien ce.

REFERENCE
1. F. Joseph Pompei. The use of airborne ultrasonics for generating audible sound beams. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, P. J. Westervelt. Parametric acoustic array. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2. Thomas D. Kite, John T. Post, and Mark F. Hamilton. Parametric array in air: Distortion reduction by preprocessing. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 3. Jacqueline Naze Tjotta and Sigve Tjotta. Nonlinear interaction of two collinear, spherically spreading sound beams. 4. www.silentsound.co.za Silent sound 5. www.wikipedia.org - Sound from Ultrasound 6. www.techalone.com - Audio spotlighting 7. www.howstuffworks.com 8. www.holosonics.com 9. Electronics For You - Vol. 40 January 2008