All technologies have principles for targeted use, including audio technology. But sometimes it works in unusual and unpredictable conditions. Thus, echo sounders and ultrasound devices, which are already familiar to us, appeared: in these devices, the sound helps to perform the supposedly “untargeted” function for it - to see what is hidden for the ordinary eye, to orient in space.
And now some audio gadgets and “audio” technologies can be used quite differently from what we are used to. Today we are talking about several cases of unusual - and surprisingly effective - the use of audio equipment or the physical properties of sound.
Photo by B Rosen CC BY-ND"Headphones" with an aromatic effect
In order to reassure aerophobes, the French National Polytechnic Institute invented special headphones with a microphone, which in fact is not a microphone.
A portable microphone at these headphones is a channel for spreading a “soothing” smell (mint, lavender, chamomile or orange flowers). Odorous substances necessary for the operation of the gadget, introduced into the composition of the biopolymer. The container with the threads from this biopolymer is placed in the armrest of the chair, to which the headphones are connected to the “standard” (externally) connector and “connected”.
The headphone wire is actually equipped with a hollow tube through which the smell is injected into the microphone (according to the developers, if the source of the smell was located directly in the microphone, the aroma would feel too intense and would not have a relaxing effect). Such an approach allows not only to measure the smell, but also to “isolate” it, to make it fully individual (according to a similar principle, the earphones made the sound individual). After all, flavors that like and soothe some, others can be unpleasant - especially if we are talking about a long stay in a confined space.
The main objective of these headphones - with the help of music and smells soothe passengers suffering from aerophobia. For the time being, this is only a development that may appear in the aircraft for several years.
Its name is 2 , from the words casque (headphones), aero, audio and olfactif (ophlactive, olfactory).
Dozens of ways to use the headphone jack
The TRRS headphone jack has four pins, including one for the microphone and two for audio output (left and right). In addition, the connector transmits a small amount of energy. But this energy
can also be used for other purposes - for example, to transfer additional devices to the microprocessors that are not necessarily connected with audio.
So, there are technologies that allow you to turn a device with a “jack” for headphones into a
thermometer ,
oscilloscope, and even into a device that can
create 3D images of reality . Another device claims to be the “
smallest weather station ” in a mobile: it allows you to measure temperature, atmospheric pressure, ultraviolet radiation, humidity and ambient lighting.
The strength of such devices is lightness and small size, because they do not need batteries or rechargeable batteries, as well as receivers of the Internet signal, since all these functions are performed by the smartphone.
Acoustic Levitation
We use sound waves for different tasks. Some ways to use sound have become familiar to us for a long time, and some are still new - despite the fact that the principles behind them are open a long time ago.
One of these principles is the use of the physical properties of sound waves in order to lift objects into the air from different materials and different shapes. This principle is called "acoustic levitation." It is possible due to
standing sound waves . At a certain amplitude of oscillations, the pressure of sound becomes stronger than the action of gravity — the object begins to “levitate” in the air.
Experimental Guided Acoustic LevitationThe main problem of acoustic levitation is that it is very difficult to control the movement of objects in standing sound waves. But in 2013, scientists from Zurich Swiss Higher Technical School
managed to achieve significant success in the development of controlled acoustic levitation technology - they were able to lift a wooden toothpick into the air, twist it and more or less accurately transfer it from point A to point B. Now experiments with levitation are being conducted and larger objects — researchers are looking for (and finding) ways to lift objects of ever larger diameters into the air.
Sounds in medicine
Another use of sound waves is medicine. We use ultrasound and infrasound to diagnose and treat a wide variety of diseases. But in this area, too, there are regular discoveries.
In 2009, Medical Acoustics developed the so-called pulmonary flute -
Lung Flute . It is a device for the treatment of certain diseases of the respiratory tract: emphysema, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc. Traditionally, they are treated with drugs, but Lung Flute helps to get rid of the mucus in the bronchi using low-frequency sound waves.
The device
consists of a long plastic tube and rod - the patient is blowing into the tube, and the vibration of the rod generates acoustic waves in the chest cavity. Similarly, the cilia vibrate, covering the epithelium of the bronchi and normally helping to get rid of the dirt and mucus that gets there. In fact, Lung Flute works the same way as one of the natural systems of the body, helping it to cope with the "cleaning" of the bronchi and facilitating the process of breathing. Now this device is used in Canada, Europe, Japan and the USA.
In these cases, sound and audio technologies are used to create new devices that solve new problems, not necessarily related to sound.
But for the "misuse" of audio equipment, research and long-term development are not always needed. Sometimes, in order to defeat social expectations, there is no need even to modify a familiar gadget - it is enough to use it in a non-standard setting. For example, an American student recently
came to the exam with a portable vinyl player , headphones, and a stack of records. He wanted to listen to music while doing work, and the phones on exams are forbidden, so that students could not write off - he solved this problem in an unusual way using a “classic” player.
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