CONTENTS

S.N0 CHAPTER PAGE

LIST OF FIGURES

ABSTRACT

1 INTRODUCTION
2 INSIGHT INTO SPOTLIGHTING
3 2.1 HISTORY
4 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING
5 3.1 WHAT IS AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING
6 3.2 THEORY
7 3.3 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
8 3.4 RANGE OF HEARING
9 WORKING
10 4.1 WORKING
11 4.2 NON-LINEAR OR AIR
12 4.3 BEAM DISPERSION
13 4.4 COMPOUNENTS OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING
14 4.4.1 DISPERSION
15 4.5 MODES OF LISTENING
16 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING APPILCATIONS
17 5.1 APPLICATIONS
18 5.2 APPLICATIONS OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING TOWARDS
19 THE FUTURE
20 5.3 SPECIAL FEATURES OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING
21 5.4 ADVANTAGES
22 COCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
23 6.1 CONCLUSION
24 FUTURE SCOPE
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure.No NAME PAGE

FIGURE3.1 PROPAGATION OF SOUND BEAM

FROM AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING

FIGURE3.2 CONVENTIONAL SPEAKERS

FIGURE3.3 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING

FIGURE3.4 BEAM OF HEARING

FIGURE4.1 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING EMITTER

FIGURE4.2 DIRECTIVITY

FIGURE4.3 DISPERSION OF SOUND BEAM

FIGURE4.4 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING SYSTEM

FIGURE4.5 PARAMETRIC LOUDSPEAKER

FIGURE4.6 DIRECTED AUDIO AND PROJECTED

AUDIO
 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 combination of
non-linear acoustics and some fancy mathematics. But it is real and is fine to knock the socks of
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 and as the beam moves
through the air gradual distortion takes place in a predictable way due to the property of non-
linearity of air. This gives rise to audible components that can be accurately predicted and
precisely controlled. Joseph Pompei’s Holosonic Research Labs invented the Audio Spotlight
that is made of a sound processor, an amplifier and the transducer. The American Technology
Corporation developed the Hyper Sonic Sound-based Directed Audio Sound System. Both 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 huge commercial market in entertainment and consumer electronics
and technology developers are scrambling to tap in to the market. Being the most recent and
dramatic change in the way we perceive sound since the invention of coil loud speaker, audio
spot light technology can do many miracles in various fields like Private messaging system,
Home theatre audio system, Navy and military applications, museum displays, ventriloquist
systems etc. Thus audio spotlighting helps us to control where sound comes from and where its
goes.
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION
Hi-fi speakers range from piezoelectric tweeters of various kinds of mid-range speakers
and woofers which generally rely on circuits at large enclosures to produce quality sound,
whether it is dynamic, electrostatic or some other transducers - based design. Engineers have
struggled for nearly a century to produce a speaker design with the ideal 20Hz -20,000Hz
capability of human hearing and also produce narrow beam of audible sound.

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 property of non-linearity of air. A device known as parametric array employs
the non-linearity of air to create audible by products from inaudible ultrasound, resulting an
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 airborne speaker, and as the beam moves through the air gradual distortion takes
place in a predictable way. This gives rise to audible components that can be accurately
predicted and precisely controlled.

This audio spotlight technology creates focused beams of sound similar to light beams
coming out of a flashlight. Specific listeners can be targeted with sound without other hereby
hearing it, i.e. to focus the sound into coherent and highly directional beam. It makes use of
non- linearity property of air. Audio Spotlight is a narrow beam of sound that can be controlled
with similar precision to light from a has wavelengths only a few millimeters long which are
much smaller than the source, and therefore naturally travel in an extremely narrow beam.
The ultrasound, which contains frequencies far outside the range of human hearing, is
completely inaudible. But as the ultrasonic beam travels through the air, the inherent
properties of the air cause the ultrasound to change shape spotlight. It uses a beam of
ultrasound as a "virtual acoustic source", enabling control of sound distribution. The
ultrasound in a predictable way. This gives rise to frequency components in the audible band,
which can be predicted and controlled.
 CHAPTER-2
INSIGHT INTO SPOTTLIGHTING
Audio spotlight is a very recent technology that creates focused beams of sound
similar to light beams. By ‘shining sound to one location, specific listeners can be
targeted with sound without other nearby hearing it, i.e. to focus sound into a highly
directional beam.The audio spotlight uses ultrasonic energy to create extremely narrow
beam of sound that behave like beam of light. Audio spotlighting exploits the property
of non-linearity of air. When inaudible ultrasound pulses are fired into the air, it
spontaneously converts the inaudible ultrasound into audible sound tones. like audible
sound ultrasound waves, get distorted as they travel through air. The ultrasound waves
are breaked into lower frequency, i.e. audible sound waves. so these ultrasound waves
can travel along a narrow path, people to left or right of a target remain silence.

2.1 HISTORY

This technology was originally developed by the US Navy and Soviet Navy for
underwater sonar in the mid1960s. In 1975, the first publication appeared which demonstrated
that these nonlinear effects indeed occur in air. While these researchers had not attempted to
reproduce audio, also they nonetheless proved that such a device can be possible. The
technology was briefly investigated by Japanese researchers in the early 1980s, but these efforts
were abandoned due to extremely poor sound quality (high distortion) and substantial system
cost. These problems went unsolved until a paper published by Dr. F. Joseph Pompei of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 fully described a working device that reduced
audible distortion essentially to that of a traditional loudspeakers.
 CHAPTER-3

AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING
3.1 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING?

The Audio Spotlight is a revolutionary new audio technology that creates sound in a
narrow beam, just like light. Aim the flat, thin speaker panel to your desired listening area, and
provide all of the sound and none of the noise.

Since 2000, thousands of Audio Spotlight systems have been installed in a wide range of
applications around the world. From museums, exhibits, kiosks, and digital signage to retail
stores and special projects, hundreds of companies have chosen this unique, patented
technology to provide high-quality, precisely controlled sound, while preserving the quiet.

3.2 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 which is why you don?t need to be right in front of a radio to
hear music. In fact, the beam angle of audible sound is very wide, just about 360 degrees. This
effectively means the sound that you hear will be propagated through air equally in all
directions. 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, the less the beam angle, and hence,
the more focused the sound.The equation for calculating the delay in the near field is:
t=(d-r)/c;

Unfortunately, most of the human-audible sound is a mixture of signals with varying

wavelengths between 2 cms to 17 meters (the human hearing ranges from a frequency of 20 Hz
to 20,000 Hz).
Hence, except for very low wavelengths, just about the entire audible spectrum tends to
spread out at 360 degrees. To create a narrow sound beam, the aperture size of the source also
matters a large loudspeaker will focus 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. To
ensure that the shortest audible wavelengths are focused into a beam, a loudspeaker about 10
meters across is required, and to guarantee that all the audible wavelengths are focused, even
bigger loudspeakers are needed. Here comes the acoustical device. invented by Holosonics Labs
founder Dr. F. Joseph Pompei (while a graduate student at MIT), who is the master brain behind
the development of this technology.
3.3 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Half a dozen commonly used speaker types are in general use today. They range from
piezoelectric tweeters that recreate the high end of the audio spectrum, to various kinds of
mid-ranges speakers and woofers that produce the lower About frequencies. Even the most
sophisticated hi-fi speakers have difficult time in reproducing clean bass, and generally rely
on a large woofer/enclosure combination to assist in the task. Whether they be dynamic,
electrostatic, or some other transducer-based design, all loudspeakers today have one thing in
common
They are direct radiating, i.e., they are fundamentally a piston-like device designed to
directly pump air molecules into motion to create the audible sound we hear. The audible
portions of sound tend to spread out in all direTtions from the point of origin. They do not
travel as narrow beams-that is why you don’t need to be rightin front of a radio to hear music.
In fact, the beam angle of audible sound is very wide, just about 360 degrees. This effectively
means the sound that you hear will be propagated through air equally in all directions.

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, the less the beam
angle, and hence, the more focused the sound. Unfortunately, most of the human-
audible sound is a mixture of signals with varying wavelengths—between 2 cms to 17
meters (the human hearing ranges from a frequency of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz).
 Hence, except for very low wavelengths, just about the entire audible spectrum
tends to spread out at 360 degrees. To create a narrow sound beam, the aperture size
of the source also matters—a large loudspeaker will focus 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. To ensure that the shortest audible
wavelengths are focused into a beam, a loudspeaker about 10 meters across is
required, and to guarantee that all the audible wavelengths are focused, even bigger
loudspeakers are needed.
.

RANGE OF HEARING
As we know human audible frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In this system
originally the low frequency sound such as human voice or music is transformed into a high
frequency ultrasonic sound which inaudible for human.

In the beginning the human voice or music is applied to the audio spotlight emitter
device. The low frequency data is modulated to a high frequency ultrasonic level. Since the
wave length of the ultrasonic frequency is small of the order of mm and beam angle is also
small hence the sound beam will be narrow with small dispersion. When inaudible ultrasound
pulses are fired into the air, it spontaneously converts the inaudible ultrasound into the audible
sound tones, hence proved that as like water, sound propagation in air is non-linear.

CHAPTER-4
4.1 WORKING

Using sound with vision improves retention rates by up to 60%, but how do you get
round the issue of noise pollution to the surrounding area? By using Audio spotlight - which
concentrates the sound just as a spotlight does so only those in the "beam" can hear your
message. Use it outside your shop window, or under your billboard. People can hear, but can't
always know where the sound is coming from. Creative opportunities.

So due to its non-linear property the air slightly alters the sound wave, the alteration in the
original sound wave gives rise to a new sound wave within the ultrasonic wave. The new
sound signal generated within ultrasonic wave will be corresponding to the original
information signal with human audible frequency range. Since we can’t hear the ultrasonic
sound wave we hear only new sound wave which is formed due to the non-linearity of air.

The nonlinear interaction mixes ultrasonic tones in air to produce sum and difference
frequencies. A DSB-AM modulation scheme with an appropriately large baseband DC offset, to
produce the demodulating tone superimposed on the modulated audio spectrum, is one way to
generate the signal that encodes the desired baseband audio spectrum. This technique suffers
from extremely heavy distortion as not only the demodulating tone interferes, but also all other
frequencies present interfere with one another. The modulated spectrum is convolved with
itself, doubling its bandwidth by the length property of the convolution. The baseband distortion
in the bandwidth of the original audio spectrum is inversely proportional to the magnitude of
the DC offset (demodulation tone) superimposed on the signal. A larger tone results in less
distortion.
 These distorting effects may be better mitigated by using another modulation scheme
that takes advantage of the differential squaring device nature of the nonlinear acoustic effect.
Modulation of the second integral of the square root of the desired baseband audio signal,
without adding a DC offset, results in convolution in frequency of the modulated square-root
spectrum, half the bandwidth of the original signal, with itself due to the nonlinear channel
effects. This convolution in frequency is a multiplication in time of the signal by itself, or a
squaring. This again doubles the bandwidth of the spectrum, reproducing the second time
integral of the input audio spectrum. The double integration corrects for the -ω² filtering
characteristic associated with the nonlinear acoustic effect. This recovers the scaled original
spectrum at baseband.

4.2 NON-LINEARITY OF AIR

Audio spotlighting exploits the property of non-linearity of air. When inaudible

ultrasound pulses are fired into the air, it spontaneously converts the inaudible ultrasound into
audible sound tones, hence proved that as with water, sound propagation in air is just as non-
linear, and can be calculated mathematically. A device known as a parametric array employs
the non-linearity of the air to create audible by-products from inaudible ultrasound, resulting in
an extremely directive, beamlike wide-band acoustical source. This source can be projected
about an area much like a spotlight, and creates an actual sound distant from the transducer. The
ultrasound column acts as an airborne speaker, and as the beam moves through the air, gradual
distortion takes place in a predictable way. This gives rise to audible components that can be
accurately predicted and precisely controlled. However, the problem with firing off ultrasound
pulses, and having them interfere to produce audible tones is that the audible components
created are nowhere similar to the complex signals in speech and music. Human speech, as well
as music, contains multiple varying frequency signals, which interfere to produce sound and
distortion. To generate such sound out of pure ultrasound tones is not easy.
 This is when teams of researchers from Ricoh and other Japanese companies got
together to come up with the idea of using pure ultrasound signals as a carrier wave, and
superimposing audible speech and music signals on it to create a hybrid wave. 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%. No single loudspeaker element can operate efficiently or
uniformly over this range of frequencies. In order to deal with this speaker manufacturers carve
the audio spectrum into smaller sections. This requires multiple transducers and crossovers to
create a 'higher fidelity' system with current technology.

Using a technique of multiplying audible frequencies upwards and superimposing them

on a "carrier" of say, 200,000 cycles the required frequency shift for a transducer would be only
10%. Using sound with vision improves retention rates by up to 60%, but how do you get round
the issue of noise pollution to the surrounding area? By using Audio spotlight - which
concentrates the sound just as a spotlight does so only those in the "beam" can hear your
message. Use it outside your shop window, or under your billboard. People can hear, but can't
always know where the sound is coming from. Creative opportunities

4.3 BEAM DISPERSION

Figure shows the description of sound beam an spotlighting emitter. Even after travelling a
distance of 10cm the beam covers only an area of 3.2 meter square
4.4 COMPONENTS OF AUDIO SPOTILIGHTING SYSTEM
1. Power supply
2. Frequency oscillator
3. Modulator
4. Audio signal processor
5. Microcontroller
6. Ultrasonic amplifier
7. Transducer

1. Power supply: Like all electronics the audio spotlight works off the DC supply.
Ultrasonic amplifier requires 48v DC supply for its working and low voltage for
microcontroller and other units.
2. Frequency oscillator: The frequency oscillator generates ultrasonic frequency of in
the range of which is required for the modulation of information signal.
3. Modulator: In order to convert the source signal material into ultrasonic signal a
modulation scheme is required which is achieved through a modulator. 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 decreasedistortion.
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. Microcontroller: A dedicated microcontroller circuit takes care of the functional
management of the system. In the future version, it is expected that the whole
process like functional management, signal processing, double side band modulation
and even switch mode power supply would be effectively taken care of by a single
embedded IC.
6. Ultrasonic Amplifier: 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 cm 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 reproduction with zero lag. It can be wall, overhead or flush mounted. These
transducers are arranged in form of an array called parametric array.

VI.MODES OF LISTENING
There are two types of listening:

1) Direct Mode
 2) Projected Mode

1) 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.
2) Projected 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 sound 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.

VII.ADVANTAGES
 Can focus sound only at the place you want.
 Ultrasonic emitter devices are thin and flat and do not require a mountingcabinet.
 The focused or directed sound travels much faster in a straight line than conventional
loudspeakers.
 Dispersioncanbecontrolled-verynarroworwidertocover morelisteningarea.
 Highly cost effective as the maintenance required is less as compared to conventional
loud speakers and have longer life span.

VIII.APPLICATIONS
 Automobiles: Beam alert signals can be directly propagated from an announcement
device in the dashboard to the driver. Presently Mercedes - Benz are fitted with audio
spotlighting speakers so that individual travellers can enjoy the music of there on interest.




Store advertisement: Provide targeted advertising directly at the point of purchase.

 Safety officials: Portable audio spotlighting devices for communicating with a specific
person in a crowd of people.
 Hospitals: Using the unprecedented directivity of the Audio Spotlight directional
speaker technology, patients are able to watch the programs they prefer, privately,
without bothering any of the other patients, doctors, or nursing staff.
 Emergency rescue: Rescuers can communicate with endangered people far from reach.
 Entertainment system: In home theatre system rear speakers can be eliminated by the
implementation of audio spotlighting and the properties of sound can be improve.

 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.

 Militaryapplications: Ship - to - ship communications 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.
 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.
 XI.CONCLUSION
Audio Spotlighting is going to change our view in sound transmission. The user can
decide the direction of sound in which it should propagate. Since the sound in this system
propagates in single direction, it is applicable in several fields. Audio Spotlighting will be an
amazing experience for the users.

REFERENCES:
[1] F. Joseph Pompei. The use of airborne ultrasonic 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] AUDIO SPOTLIGHT by Ayushi Kaushik, Jyoti Pandey, Neha tomar International
Journal Of Advance Research In Science And Engineering IJARSE, Vol. No.2, Issue
No.10, October 2013.