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 WINSTON NETTO SEE WINSTON NETTO SEE WINSTON NETTO SEE - -- - 1697 1697 1697 1697 of the Seventh
semester Electrical and Electronics Engineering in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of Bachelor of Technology Degree in Electrical and
Electronics Engineering under Mahatma Gandhi University during the
year 2009 2010 under my guidance at SCMS School of Engineering and
Technology, Karukutty.






Head of Department
Faculty in Charge Electrical and Electronics Engineering






ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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. CONTENTS PAGE NO.
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 THEORY 2
3 TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 3
4 RANGE OF HEARING 5
5 WORKING 6
6 BEAM DISPERSION 9
7 ARCHITECTURE 10
8 MODES OF LISTENING 13
9 ADVANTAGES 14
10 APPLICATIONS 15
11 FUTURE OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING 17
12 CONCLUSION 18
13 REFERENCE 19











LIST OF FIGURES










FIGURE NO. FIGURE NAME PAGE NO.
1 PROPAGATION OF SOUND BEAM 2
2 CONVENTIONAL SPEAKERS 4
3 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING SPEAKERS 4
4 RANGE OF HEARING 5
5 AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING EMITTER 6
6 DIRECTIVITY 7
7 COMPUTER SIMULATION OF SOUND BEAM 9
8 DISPERSION OF SOUND BEAM 11
9 BLOCK DIACRAM 10
10 PARAMETRIC LOUDSPEAKER 12
11 DIRECTEC AND PROJECTED AUDIO 13


INTRODUCTION

Hi-fi speakeis iange fiom piezoelectiic tweeteis to vaiious kinds of mid-iange speakeis
and woofeis which geneially iely on ciicuits ant laige enclosuies to pioduce quality
sound, whethei it dynamic, electiostatic oi some othei tiansducei based design.
Engineeis have stiuggled foi neaily a centuiy to pioduce a speakei design with the ideal
2OHz 2O,OOOHz capability of human heaiing and also pioduce a naiiow beam of
audible sound.
Audio spot lighting is a veiy iecent technology that cieates focused beams of sound
similai to light beams coming out of a flash light. Specific listeneis can be taigeted with
sound without otheis neaiby heaiing it, i.e. to focus the sound into a coheient and highly
diiectional beam. It makes use of non-lineaiity piopeity of aii.
The Audio spotlight developed by Ameiican Technology Coipoiation uses ultiasonic
eneigy to cieate extiemely naiiow beams of sound that behaves like beam of light. Audio
spotlight exploits the piopeity of non-lineaiity of aii. A device known as paiametiic
aiiay employs the non-lineaiity of the aii to cieate audible by pioducts fiom inaudible
ultiasound, iesulting in extiemely diiective and beam like sound. This souice can
piojected about an aiea much like a spotlight and cieates an actual specialized sound
distant fiom a tiansducei. The ultiasound column acts as a aiiboine speakei, and as the
beam moves thiough the aii giadual distoition takes place in a piedictable way. This
gives iise to audible components that can be accuiately piedicted and piecisely
contiolled.









THEORY

The iegulai loudspeakeis pioduce audible sound by diiectly moving the aii molecules.
The audible poitions of sound tend to spiead out in all diiections fiom the point of
oiigin. They do not tiavel as naiiow beams. In fact the beam angle of audible sound is
veiy wide, just about 36O degiees. This effectively means that the sound you heai will be
piopagated thiough the aii equally in all diiections. Conventional loudspeakeis suffei
fiom amplitude distoitions, haimonic distoition, intei - modulation distoition, phase
distoition, ciossovei distoition, cone iesonance etc. Some aspects of theii mechanical
aspects aie mass, magnetic stiuctuie, enclosuie design and cone constiuction.
In oidei to focus sound into a naiiow beam, you need to maintain a low beam angle that
is dictated by wavelength. The smallei the wavelength, less the beam angle and hence,
the moie focused the sound. The beam angle also depends on the apeituie size of the
speakei. A laige loudspeakei will focus the sound ovei a smallei aiea. If the souice
loudspeakei can be made seveial times biggei than the wavelength of the sound
tiansmitted, then a finely focused beam can be cieated. The pioblem heie is that this is
not a veiy piactical solution, thus the low beam angle can be achieved only by making
the wavelength smallei and this can be achieved by making use of ultiasonic sound.

FIG 1 :F.JOSEPH POMPEI AT THE MIT LAB. PROPAGATION OF SOUND BEAM
FROM AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING DEVICE.



TECHNOLOCY OVERVIEW

The technique of using a nonlineai inteiaction of high fiequency waves to geneiate low
fiequency waves was oiiginally pioneeied by ieseaicheis developing undeiwatei sonai
techniques in 196O's. In 1975, an aiticle cited the nonlineai effects occuiiing in aii. Ovei
the next two decades, seveial laige companies including Panasonic and Ricoh attempted
to develop a loudspeakei using this piinciple. They weie successful in pioducing some
soit of sound but with highei level of distoition (>5O%). In 199Os, Woody Noiiis a
Radai Technician solved the paiametiic pioblems of this technology.
Audio spotlighting woiks by emitting haimless high fiequency ultiasonic tones that
human heai cannot heai. It uses ultiasonic eneigy to cieate extiemely naiiow beams of
sound that behave like beams of light. Ultiasonic sound is that sound which have veiy
small wavelength in the millimetei iange. These tones make use of non-lineaiity
piopeity of aii to pioduce new tones that aie within the iange of human heaiing which
iesults in audible sound. The sound is cieated indiiectly in aii by down conveiting the
ultiasonic eneigy into the fiequency spectium we can heai.
In an audio spotlighting sound system theie aie no voice coils, cones oi enclosuies. The
iesult is 'sound with a potential puiity and fidelity which we attained nevei befoie'.
Sound quality is no longei tied to speakei size. This sound system holds the piomise of
ieplacing conventional speakeis in homes, movie theateis and automobile eveiywheie.


















FIG 2: CONVENTIONAL SPEAKERS












FIG 3: AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING


RANCE OF HEARINC

The human eai is sensitive to fiequencies ianging fiom 2O Hz to 2O,OOO Hz. If the iange
of human heaiing is expiessed as a peicentage of shift fiom the lowest audible fiequency
to the highest it spans a iange of 1OO,OOO peicent. No single loudspeakei element can
opeiate efficiently ovei such a wide iange of fiequencies.
Using this technology it is possible to design a peifect tiansducei which can woik ovei a
wide iange of fiequency which is audible to human heai.




FIG 4: RANGE OF HEARING











WORKINC

The oiiginal low fiequency sound wave such as human speech oi a music is applied into
an audio spotlight emittei device. This low fiequency signal is fiequency modulated with
ultiasonic fiequencies ianging fiom 21 kHz to 28 kHz. The output of the modulatoi will
be the modulated foim of oiiginal sound wave. Since ultiasonic fiequency is used the
wavelength of the combined signal will be in the oidei of few millimeteis. Since the
wavelength is smallei the beam angle will be aiound 3 degiee, as a iesult the sound beam
will be a naiiow one with a small dispeision.



FIC 5: AUDIO SPOTLICHTINC EMITTER






While the fiequency modulated signal tiavels thiough the aii, the nonlineaiity piopeity
of aii comes into action which slightly changes the sound wave. If theie is a change in a
sound wave, new sounds aie foimed within the wave. Theiefoie if we know how the aii
affects the sound waves, we can piedict exactly what new fiequencies (sounds) will be
added into the sound wave by the aii itself. The new sound signal geneiated within the
ultiasonic sound wave will be coiiesponding to the oiiginal infoimation signal with a
fiequency in the iange of 2O Hz to 2O kHz will be pioduced within the ultiasonic sound
wave. Since we cannot heai the ultiasonic sound wave we only heai the new sounds that
aie foimed by non lineai action of the aii. Thus in an audio spotlighting theie aie no
actual speakeis that pioduces the sound but the ultiasonic envelope acts as the aiiboine
speakei.



FIC 6: DIRECTIVITY




The new sound pioduced viitually has no distoitions associated with it and faithful
iepioduction of sound is fieed fiom bulky enclosuies. Theie aie no woofeis oi
ciossoveis. This technology is similai in that you can diiect the ultiasonic emittei
towaids a haid suiface, a wall foi instance and the listenei peiceives the sound as coming
fiom the spot on the wall. The listenei does not peiceive the sound as emanating fiom
the face of the tiansducei, but only foim the ieflection 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: COMPUTER SIMULATION OF SOUND BEAM














BEAM DISPERSION


FIG 8: DISPERSION OF SOUND BEAM

Iiguie shows the dispeision of sound beam fiom an audio spotlighting emittei. Even
aftei tiaveling a distance of 1Om the beam coveis only an aiea of 3.2 metei squaie.










COMPONENTS OF AUDIO SPOTLICHTINC SYSTEM
1. Powei Supply.
2. Iiequency oscillatoi.
3. Modulatoi.
4. Audio signal piocessoi.
5. Miciocontiollei.
6. Ultiasonic amplifiei.
7. Tiansducei.
















FIG9: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AN AUDIO SPOLIGHTING SYSTEM












1. Pnwcr Supply: Like all electionic systems, the audio spotlighting system woiks off
DC voltage. Ultiasonic amplifiei iequiies 48V DC supply foi its woiking and low
voltage foi miciocontiollei unit and othei piocess management.


2. Frcqucncy nscillatnr: The fiequency oscillatoi geneiates ultiasonic fiequency
signals in the iange of (21,OOO Hz to 28,OOO Hz) which is iequiied foi the
modulation of infoimation signals.

3. Mndulatnr: In oidei to conveit the souice signal mateiial into ultiasonic signal a
modulation scheme is iequiied which is achieved thiough a modulatoi. In addition,
eiioi coiiection is needed to ieduce distoition without loss of efficiency. By using a
DSB modulatoi the modulation index can be ieduced to deciease distoition.

4. Audin signal prnccssnr: The audio signal is sent to electionic signal piocessoi
ciicuit wheie equalization and distoition contiol aie peifoimed in oidei to pioduce
a good quality sound signal.

5. Micrncnntrnllcr: A dedicated miciocontiollei ciicuit takes caie of the functional
management of the system. In the futuie veision, it is expected that the whole
piocess like functional management, signal piocessing, double side band
modulation and even switch mode powei supply would be effectively taken caie of
by a single embedded IC.

6. Ultrasnnic Amplificr: High efficiency ultiasonic powei amplifieis amplifies the
fiequency modulated wave in oidei to match the impedance of the integiated
tiansduceis. So that the output of the emittei will be moie poweiful and can covei
moie distance.



7. Transduccr: It is 1.27 cm thick and 17" in diametei. It is capable of pioducing
audibility up to 2OO meteis with bettei claiity of sound. It has the ability of ieal time
sound iepioduction with zeio 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: PARAMETRIC LOUDSPEAKER

















MODES OF LISTENINC

Theie aie two modes of listening:
1. Diiect Mode.
2. Piojected Mode.

FIG11: DIRECTED AUDIO AND PROJECTED AUDIO

Dircct Mndc: Diiect mode iequiies a cleai line of appioach fiom the sound system unit
to the point wheie the listenei can heai the audio. To iestiict the audio in a specific aiea
this method is appiopiiate.

Prnjcctcd nr Virtual mndc: This mode iequiies an unbioken line of appioach fiom the
emittei of audio spotlighting system, so the emittei is pointed at the spot wheie the is to
be heaid. Ioi this mode of opeiation the sound beam fiom an emittei is made to ieflect
fiom a ieflecting suiface such as a wall suiface oi a diffusei suiface. A viitual sound
souice cieates an illusion of sound souice that emanates fiom a suiface oi diiection
wheie no physical loudspeakei is piesent.




ADVANTACES

1. Can focus sound only at the place you want.
2. Ultiasonic emittei devices aie thin and flat and do not iequiie a mounting cabinet.
3. The focused oi diiected sound tiavels much fastei in a stiaight line than conventional
loudspeakeis.
4. Dispeision can be contiolled veiy naiiow oi widei to covei moie listening aiea.
5. Can ieduce oi eliminate the feedback fiom miciophones.
6. Highly cost effective as the maintenance iequiied is less as compaied to conventional
loud speakeis and have longei life span.
7. Requiies only same powei as iequiied foi iegulai speakeis.
8. Theie is no lag in iepioducing the sound.














APPLICATIONS

1. Autnmnbilcs: Beam aleit signals can be diiectly piopagated fiom an
announcement device in the dashboaid to the diivei. Piesently Meicedes Benz
buses aie fitted with audio spotlighting speakeis so that individual tiavelleis can
enjoy the music of theie on inteiest.

2. Rctail salcs: Piovide taigeted adveitising diiectly at the point of puichase.

3. Safcty nfficials: Poitable audio spotlighting devices foi communicating with a
specific peison in a ciowd of people.
4. Public annnunccmcnt: Highly focused announcement in noisy enviionments such
as subways, aiipoits, amusement paiks, tiaffic inteisections etc.







5. Emcrgcncy rcscuc: Rescueis can communicate with endangeied people fai fiom
ieach.

6. Entcrtainmcnt systcm: In home theatie system ieai speakeis can be eliminated by
the implementation of audio spotlighting and the piopeities of sound can be
impioved.

7. Muscums: In museums audio spotlight can be used to desciibe about a paiticulai
object to a peison standing in fiont it, so that the othei peison standing in fiont of
anothei object will not be able to heai the desciiption.


8. Military applicatinns: Ship to ship communications and shipboaid
announcements.
9. Audin/Vidcn cnnfcrcncing: Pioject the audio fiom a confeience in foui diffeient
languages, foima single cential device without the need foi headphones.
1O. Snund bullcts: 1ack the sound level 5O times the human thieshold of pain, and an
offshoot of audio spotlighting sound technology becomes a non-lethal weapon




FUTURE OF AUDIO SPOTLIGHTING

Even the best loudspeakeis aie subject to distoition and theii omni diiectional sound is
annoying to the people in the vicinity who do no wish to listen.
Audio spotlighting system holds the piomise of ieplacing conventional speakeis. It
allows the usei to contiol the diiection of piopagation of sound. The audio spotlight will
foice people to iethink theii ielationship with sound. Audio spotlighting ieally "put
sound wheie you want it".































CONCLUSION

Audio spotlighting is really going to make a revolution in sound transmission
and the user can decide the path in which audio signal should propagate.
Due to the unidirectional propagation it finds application in large number of
fields. Audio spotlighting system is going to shape the future of sound and will
serve our ears with magical experience.



























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
9Electionics Ioi You Vol. 4O 1anuaiy 2OO8