RIP headphones? New tech can now beam music into your ears without the need for any hardware

Of course, we’re all used to listening to sound via speakers and enjoying all the freedom that brings, from wandering from room to room unencumbered or collectively enjoying a gig or movie out in the real world.

But more and more of us are listening to more and more audio discreetly and, while wireless headphones have become the norm, there’s always the need to purchase, connect and ‘wear’ them in order to hear what’s going on.

So how about a new technology that will allow you to leave the headphones at home (or on the shelf entirely) and listen to discreet music in your own ‘enclave’ without disturbing anyone else, and without having to purchase (or wear) any additional hardware?

That’s the promise coming from American university Penn State's 'Audible Enclave' research, a new tech that uses ultrasonic waves to provide private listening without headphones.

It works in a similar way to the 3D beamforming and wave field synthesis technology used at cutting-edge music venues such as The Sphere.

There, music and sound effects can be placed anywhere within the arena's physical space, giving a personalised ‘it’s coming from over there’ audio experience no matter where the actual speaker and no matter where you’re sat.

Audible Enclave’s ultrasonic curved waves are inaudible, but can be fired and focused by metasurfaces – acoustic lenses that incorporate submillimeter-scale microstructures that bend the direction of sound – and where the two beams cross an audible air vibration generated, allowing the tech to create pockets – or enclaves – of sound that only ears present at the exact right physical position will be able to hear.

Pardon?

The tech has been developed at the Pennsylvania State University and so far they’ve been able to place sound within a room and even accurately bypass obstacles such as heads or pieces of furniture, reaching their intended targets as if they weren’t there.

“We essentially created a virtual headset,” said Jia-Xin “Jay” Zhong, a postdoctoral scholar in acoustics at Penn State. “Someone within an audible enclave can hear something meant only for them – enabling sound and quiet zones.”

Of course, the technology isn’t ready for primetime (and eradicating the multi-billion dollar headphone industry) just yet.

So far the sound can only be transmitted around 1m at around 60 decibels, aka speaking volume. But given that most discreet audio listening is done at this kind of range – from a phone to a pair of wireless headphones, say – it looks like they’ve cracked the most extensive use case already.

Indeed, the most obvious application would be on board devices such as mobile phones, being portable devices that are carried with the user and never usually more than one meter away.

However, developers of the tech believe that by increasing the intensity of the ultrasound being used they can both increase the range and its loudness, in theory making it possible to transmit sound to individual audience members at a gig or – at some point in the future – provide discreet audio while you’re walking down the street or sitting in the park, sparing you the need to ‘plug in’ and allowing you to leave any kind of playback device at home entirely.

Plus, without the associated ‘detachment’ of wearing headphones, listeners would be able to listen to their selected audio and still be ‘present’ in their physical space, able to hear what’s going on around them and engage in interaction and conversation.

It’s certainly exciting tech with multiple potential uses.

Doubtless there’ll be more than a few mobile phone makers and headphone brands watching this one with interest.