WEBVTT - The Future of Sound: Part Two 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:14.600 Forward Thinking. Pay the everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.160 the podcast that looks at the future and says, there's 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.280 a new sound, the newest sound around, the strangest sound 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.840 that you have ever heard. I'm Jovin Strickland and I'm 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:27.840 Joe McCormick, and today we're gonna dive right into part 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.120 two of our two part episode on the future of sound, 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.199 in which we discuss many that's certainly not all of 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.680 the ways that scientists and engineers and techno geeks of 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.479 all kinds are using sound to change the world of tomorrow. Right. So, 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.640 previously on Forward Thinking, we talked about how sound works 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.159 and talked a lot about ultrasonic applications in medicine. So 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.000 if you haven't heard that episode, I highly recommend you 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:54.560 check that one out because we kind of lay the 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.720 foundation for what we're gonna be talking about today. Right, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.000 So what are we going to be talking about, Well, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.720 we're gonna pick up. I had said in the end 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.280 of the last episode that our first story was going 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.280 to be again about ultrasonic frequencies, but in a non 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.559 medical application, and this is actually going to be about 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:15.880 how UH Disney has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:22.120 create UH controls physical controls for smartphones, and that you're 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:27.039 they're using ultrasonic frequencies as the means for these controls 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.520 to interact with the phone. Okay, so we're gonna have 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.080 to explain that a little better. You're you're not saying 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.120 that you sing let it go at your phone to 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.720 unlock it. No, if you could sing let it go 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.800 at ultrasonic frequencies, I would be real impressed. Yeah. I've 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.880 got a friend whose little daughter I think can do that, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.600 and then she should go on American bats have talent 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:54.320 and sing that out. That's fantastic. Well, now, in this case, 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.440 the ultrasonic frequencies are being used in a similar way 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.120 to what we've talked about before with the echolocation end 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.760 of approach, where UH you measure you emit sound from 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:09.400 one device like essentially a speaker transponder transmitter, yeah, and 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.359 then you end up picking it up through another one 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.480 receiver of some sort and by measuring the time it 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.320 took for the sound travel from one and get back 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.160 to the other, as well as any changes in the 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.760 frequency or wavelengths of that sound. You then can start 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.239 to draw some conclusions. Well, in this case, Disney and 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.040 Carnegie meil and have developed some hardware that could connect 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:34.600 to a smartphone, and that hardware could allow you to 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.480 control the smartphone in different ways. Usually the idea being 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.840 that this is a proof of concept and that the 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.800 apps will eventually allow you the different control schemes. So 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.600 we're talking about physical controls like a case. Imagine that 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.520 you have a case that's essentially got a tube that 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.280 runs around the perimeter of your phone. Now, one of 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.400 the that tube is hooked up to the speaker of 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.320 your phone, and one and the other end goes to 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.560 the receiver. And then there's an ultrasonic frequency that's being 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.680 emitted by your phone. So you cannot hear it. It 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.200 is above the range of human hearing. But this can 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.120 be played just through a regular MP three. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.520 I mean a phone can certainly play sounds that are 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.920 well beyond the frequency of human hearing. For instance, every 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.919 conversation I have with my wife, I can't hear half 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:23.720 of what she says. Oh, so these frequencies, even though 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:25.600 you can't hear them, your phone can admit them and 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.760 detect them. Right, It's it's not limited by the same 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:35.080 physical limitations we mirror mortals are subject to have human ears, right, 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.600 so it has tiny bad ears. Creepy if your phone 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:47.240 had human ears attached to it. Though, well, yeah, you're right. 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.280 I can't wait to see all the photoshop work that 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.200 comes out of this anyway, So very Cronenberg. Okay, I'm sorry, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.080 Please go ahead. All right. So, so you've got this 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.680 case and it's got essentially this tubing that allows the 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.760 sound to pass through. Now, if you were to have 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.920 the the case sitting on a table and the phone, 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.000 of course is in the case, it would be able 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.320 to detect that because there's not any you know, there's 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.480 no deformation of the case. You aren't holding it. If 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.800 you are gripping it, it would deform the case just 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:17.080 enough so that the receiver would detect that difference from 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.680 the sound waves that are coming in. And in fact, 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:21.960 the harder you grip it, the more it would change 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.200 that the nature of those sound waves. So you could 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.159 create a physical control based on this, So you could 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.239 end up creating a game that relies on this control system. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.520 So imagine that you've got a maze and then by 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.719 gripping your phone with a certain strength, it makes the 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:39.920 character in the maze turn in one direction, and by 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.800 releasing the pressure, it makes it turn in a different direction. 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.360 That's a simple example of how this could be used. 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.120 But they showed up tons of different ways of doing this, 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:54.479 including methodologies that would have like a joystick or a 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.919 valve control, or just a switch or toggle, things like 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.280 pressure switches that would do things like allow you to 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.200 change the volume on your phone or a lighting effect 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.240 on your phone. Lots of different potential uses. Now, the 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.840 control system is just a platform, right. They haven't designed 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.240 the apps around this, but they could do things like 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.200 an alarm clock where you reach over and you squeeze 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.839 part of the case around it and that's what tells 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.000 it to go to sleep or turn off or whatever. Um. 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.400 So what we're seeing now is the development of the hardware. 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.120 The software is going to follow. I expect we'll see 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.720 a lot of it because Disney is known for that 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.720 kind of thing. But this kind of interesting that again, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.640 they're using ultrasonic signals for this control system. It's not 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.640 you know, using capacitors or electrical circuitry or anything like 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.120 that is simply sound. Yeah, well, I mean, the the 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.760 tricky thing in introducing anything electromagnetic into a system like 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.360 a phone is that it has the capacity to interfere 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.679 with what the computer in the phone is doing. That's true. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.960 I mean, you know, that's that's the truth with lots 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.600 of different electrical components, is that, you know, electricity and 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.040 magnetism have this relationship with each other, and obviously if 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.960 your control system depends upon that, it could, depending upon 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.960 the design, have the potential to impact other operations in 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.640 a negative way or even just an unpredictable ways. This 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.760 is using a control system based on sound that's not 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.000 going to interfere with other operations of the phone. So 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:37.040 pretty interesting and also very different use of ultrasonic technology 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.040 from what we were talking about before. So what if 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.279 we were to talk about using ultrasonic frequencies not to 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.360 create a control a physical control system, but a virtual 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:55.520 control system, like virtual controls? Yeah, like like like there's 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.280 no physical controls in front of you, but you can 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.159 yet control electronic compos and it's based upon gestures and 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.320 it has nothing to do with camera technology. There are 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.880 no cameras involved. It's only using ultrasonic frequencies. I like 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.280 this idea because I'm creeped out by cameras watching me 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:12.880 and this this would not be cameras watching you. This 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.520 would just be essentially cameras listening to you. The the 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.280 equivalent of sonar. Well really, really, it would just be 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:24.400 sonar tracking your movements because again it's ultrasonic frequencies reflecting 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.000 off of surfaces. In this case you and the motions 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.520 you make, and thus the motions you make can be 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.600 converted into commands for a system. Lauren, this is your 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.760 life in the future surveilled by a fish finder. So 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.680 here's the other thing that they can do though, beyond 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.480 being able to create a control system based upon your movements, 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.880 it could even create haptic feedback. Now haptic feedback, this 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.760 is a tactile feedback. Gamers have heard about this. Sure, sure, 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:57.960 that's a haptic feedback. Is like if you're if you've 0:07:58.000 --> 0:07:59.800 got a controller in your hand and there's a little 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:04.000 librating pack in it that either maybe in a horror game, 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.240 when your character is injured, you'll you'll feel the heartbeat 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.360 through the through the controller, or if you're if you're 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:12.600 shot in the first person shooter, you might feel the 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.160 impact of that bullet like a thud. Yeah, Or you 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.200 set the controller down on your wooden coffee table and 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.560 then it vibrates and scares the heck out of everybody 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.440 in the house, mostly your dog. Yeah, I I I'm 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.240 familiar with this, so yeah. The the idea being that 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.240 every time you are able to engage another sense, when 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.200 you want someone to experience some sort of virtual thing, 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.920 whether it's a video game or a true virtual environment, 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.080 any of those sort of things, you increase the level 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:45.000 of immersion. It adds a dimension to the experience. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.720 I mean, and anyone who who uh you know, specializes 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.360 in virtual environments will tell you that one of the 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.000 things you want is to create this depth of experience. 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.720 And the more senses you can engage, the deeper the 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.560 experience seems. Um. You know, It's it's one thing to 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.959 see stuff, it's another thing to see and hear. If 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.920 you can see here and feel, then it adds another 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.080 layer of immersion. If you can see here and feel 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:15.080 and smell with the y and then maybe you know, 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:17.040 attach a couple of electrodes to your tongue so you 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:18.839 can get the taste in there, and then you're really 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.440 ready to go. But in your brain to take hold 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:27.119 of your appropriate reception. So you can actually use ultrasonic 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.959 frequencies to create haptic feedback. We've talked about how sound 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.680 has a physical force. It can it can press against 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.480 stuff you're talking about, you know, moving air molecules, and 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.640 if you do that with precision, you can create haptic 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.400 feedback so that you can quote unquote feel objects that 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.000 are not really there, they're just created from sound. We 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.880 we've run right back into the creepy territory again. Okay, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.199 it could be creepy, but it could also be awesome. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:59.240 So there's a British company called Ultra Haptics that's one 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.880 of the groups that looking at bringing this technology to 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:06.400 store shelves, and it uses ultrasonic frequencies to create acoustic 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.480 radiation force, which are those little pressure waves, and you 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.880 can create really precise ones. So they said that they 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.960 could create something akin to a point that you would 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.760 feel with the tip of a finger. So they could 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:24.400 create a pressure wave so precise that one fingertip would 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.280 be enough to detect the full uh dimensions of that 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.480 pressure wave, which is pretty incredible, right, that you could 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.520 feel a physical point even though there's nothing there. Other 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.360 than just the pressure waves created by sound, some kind 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:42.839 of speakers hypothetically, Yeah, yeah, they have like a there's 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.599 there's a speaker or an emitter. However you wanted to 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.640 find it. It would be it's it usually looks like 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.520 a little like black panel, like a square panel that 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.880 sits flat on a on a surface. That's what's generating 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.520 these ultrasonic frequencies. Now, you could also do things that 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.000 would stimulate, say the palm of your hand, so that 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.679 you can feel when something is there. This would be 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:03.920 great for like a Star Wars game where you're using 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.720 the force. I could totally imagine that being the feedback 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.319 sort of stuff like I want to shoot lightning from 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.079 my fingertips and you get a little pin pricky feeling. 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.679 They're like, that's kind of cool, as long as it's 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.040 not terribly painful. I mean, the dark side doesn't need 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.640 to be, you know, truly dark at any rate. What 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:25.160 is the feeling of force choking someone? It's so satisfying. Yeah, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.160 clearly we've got two dark siders in this room already. Um. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.520 Although oddly enough, the lightsaber I used in that one 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.080 episode was blue, so I'm clearly I'm using borrowing someone 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.960 else's lightsaber for that episode of forward thinking. You could 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.120 uh so you could create a like a virtual console. 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.319 Imagine that you've got um, you know, you've got a 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.480 headset that's creating a virtual environment. You're you're looking around, 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:51.920 and let's say you're on a spaceship and you've got 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.439 a console in front of you, a virtual console that 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.720 would control the spaceship's motions. You could use one of 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.600 these emitters to generate pressure waves that when you put 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.920 your actual hands out in front of you, so in 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:07.199 the view of the virtual reality thing, you're your virtual 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.240 hands are in front of you. When you encounter the console, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.760 you would actually feel the feedback from that ultra haptic system, 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.640 so it feel as if you had real controls underneath 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.560 your hands. Now they might not be as refined as 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:25.920 an actual physical control system, but you could feel something there, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:30.599 and by moving your hands the detection of those ultrasonic frequencies, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.560 or pairing this with a camera, you could end up 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.600 having that be translated into actual commands with the game. Cool. So, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.880 so you could you could have a you could feel 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:44.559 a virtual panel under your fingers, and pressing a virtual 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:46.760 button on the virtual panel would have an effect in 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.120 the game. Yeah. Yeah, So, I mean I want to 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:55.000 try this personally. I've never I've never encountered this technology myself, 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:59.200 so I'm not sure exactly what it feels like or 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.480 how hones of it is. But I mean Sonar is 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:09.320 certainly very responsible, responsible responsive, I mean you responsible technology. Yeah, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.040 oh boy. Well, in terms of game design, that is 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.040 an interesting proposition because right now we typically have, you know, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.320 for most console based games and things, your your control 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.800 hardware is very limited. H yeah. Yeah. You got the 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:25.839 controller that you know you're going to be dealing with, 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.160 and you have to program around that. Sure, and even 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.480 if you put ninety eight million buttons on there, which 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:41.080 I think is where we're headed in forty years, right, 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.080 But yeah, so what if every game designer could in 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:51.960 the software design their own controller. I mean, that would 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.640 be interesting and also be on the level of something 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.400 like a connect where you could theoretically do that, but 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.079 you're not going to have any feedback for the users. 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.560 So the users is putting his or her hands out 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:07.120 in front of him or her and nothing has happened 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:08.959 or stops happening in the game, but you don't feel 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.320 it yourself, like there's no feedback apart from the actions 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.240 that are playing out in front of you. All Right, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:15.760 you have to you have to kind of coordinate with 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:20.600 the screen and managed to not feel entirely ridiculous as 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.080 you're interacting with these things that certainly are not there 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.240 to you. I don't know if that's possible. Now, since 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.320 we're already talking about eliciting some sort of emotional response, 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.560 it's time to talk about how ultra haptics could really 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.720 play with your emotions, at least according to the University 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.280 of Sussex. Okay, so let's let's get this all the 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:46.280 way first. I don't know how much uh to. I 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.720 don't know how much I believe this next thing because 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.480 it just seems so counterintuitive to me. But I am skeptical. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.800 But I am willing to uh to consider it. Yeah, 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.360 especially considering that the people who are researching this are 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.120 very much specialists in their field and I am not. However, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.800 University of Sussex used a system from ultra Haptics, that 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.720 same British company we were just talking about, to test 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:15.120 the ability to stimulate certain areas of a person's hand 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:22.760 in order to elicit particular emotions, which seems which seems 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.000 pretty you know, um crazy to me, like it's it's, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.240 it's it kind of reminds me of reflexology in a way. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:35.200 But according to the actual study, uh, they had detected 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.600 things like a blast of hot air on the area 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.600 of your hand around your thumb, your index finger, and 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:47.000 part of your inner palm could be associated with feeling excited, 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.600 whereas a stimulation of the hand on the outer part 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.720 of your palm and around your little finger could be 0:15:54.840 --> 0:16:00.160 associated with feeling sad. So potentially you could use this 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.600 kind of system to end up affecting the emotional response 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.680 of someone operating with that particular system. So if you 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.800 wanted to do something like tell a specific story, or 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.560 you're playing, you know, a particular type of video game, 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.120 and your goal is that you want the user to 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.040 have a particular kind of emotional response, knowing that you 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.800 can't truly control that, but you want to try and 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.120 get the best potential to use everything you can. Yeah, 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.880 and there's only so many blue tones and C minor 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.280 keys that you that you can really fit into a 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.120 single game. So yeah, so if you could, if you 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:40.920 could elicit sadness with this ultrasonic touch, then Honestly, every 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.080 time I go on Xbox Live, I feel sadness. But 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.800 it's mostly because I'm a bullet magnet. So that's I 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:53.040 don't know. I get that's interesting, but I it kind 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.600 of makes me sad to think about that. Being like 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.120 like that you would supplement the quality of your storytelling 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.520 with some kind of like a neurological trick, you know, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:06.800 when you think about maybe that's what maybe that's what 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.320 colors in art do? I mean I was about to say, 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.359 I would. I would argue that a lot of the 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.720 things that we're using are already psychological tricks, things like 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.040 the music, you know, using a minor key instead of 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.800 a major key, Like these are tricks that storytellers have 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.040 been using ever since they've incorporated those sort of elements 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.760 into their stories. So here comes the dark Knight of 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.000 the Soul. Please lean over and allow us to touch 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:34.080 your tear ducks. Yeah I I do. I do actually 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.320 get irritated whenever strings rise up in in a movie 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.760 soundtrack in good days. So so maybe so maybe I 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.320 would welcome this. Maybe this would be if it's not 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.320 handled well, it definitely like you immediately pick up on it, like, oh, 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.760 I see what you're trying to guess what, Mr Director, 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.080 I'm not gonna feel sad just because that's what you 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.399 want me to do. Do a teenager about it. I 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.480 get that way too. I get very belligerent when I 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.520 when it's when it's like blatant. If it's worked in, well, 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.600 then I appreciate it, you know, I appreciate the artistry. 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.560 But if it's if it's like you know, no subtlety whatsoever, 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.840 then I get belligerent, and any renuane emotions are so bored, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.040 you know. All right, fair enough, fair enough, Well, let's 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:23.280 let's move away from emotions and ultrasound and ultrasonic frequencies. 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.719 I've got a question. Almost everything we've talked about so 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.240 far has been ultrasonic. Are there any technological uses we 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.400 can talk about for low frequency sound? Yes. In fact, 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:37.080 there are some great examples of using lower frequencies to 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.680 have physical effects. And one of them is something that 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.600 really went viral a couple of weeks ago. You may 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.520 have seen there was a video of a couple of 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:53.960 students using a sonic fire extinguisher. They were yeah, so 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.080 so it looks like they're they're holding this this thing 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.800 that looks like partly a almost like a vacuum cleaner. 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.960 There's an enormous tube attached to it and they point 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.160 it at a pan that's in flames, and the flames 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:11.359 snuff out. And the device they're using generates low frequency 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.280 sound waves, not ultra low. They are within the range 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.840 of human hearing, around thirty to sixty hurts, so on 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.879 the low end of human hearing. And what they knew 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:28.120 that acoustic waves could affect flames. They being Seth Robertson 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.440 and Viet trend Tow students at George Mason University. They 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.080 experiment with lots of different frequencies with flames because they 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.320 knew that that these pressure waves could affect the flames themselves. 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:42.080 We can can they affect the flames or can they 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.520 affect the air that is fueling? Well, they affect the 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.800 air that's feeling the flames, but that in turn affects 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.919 the flames, so you know, you can sure we can 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.959 trace it back. Well. They found out that the ultrasonic 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.160 frequencies that they first started with would make flames vibrate, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.280 but that's it, like the flames will get all all jiggy, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.880 but they wouldn't do anything else. So they're like, well, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.320 this isn't I mean, it's pretty, but it's not doing 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.560 what we wanted to do, which is to have a 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.720 safe chemical freeway of turning of extinguishing a fire rather 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.920 than making the fire cooler exactly so right, so groovy. Now, 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:25.399 they then experimented with these these lower frequencies which generated 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.959 pressure waves that would push essentially oxygen away from fuel. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.280 And if you know, you're triangle for what require what's 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.760 required for fire, It's got three things, right, It's got fuel, heat, 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.320 and an oxidizer. Generally speaking, we say oxygen, but there 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.560 are other oxidizers as well. Uh So it needs those 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.639 three things in order for fire to happen. So the 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.560 pressure waves push the oxygen from the fuel, thus the 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.359 fire is extinguished. Uh So it's kind of cool. You 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.400 watch the demonstration and they just point this thing at 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.320 the fire. There's no visible you know, between the two. 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:07.119 It's just the fire itself extinguishes. And very interesting, very 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:12.760 potentially a huge um benefit to us. Like, imagine that 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.040 your stovetop has one of these things installed above it. 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.720 So same as like the the vent that you're going 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.359 to vent any smoke out of, you could have a 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.719 system where if there was a kitchen fire on your stove, 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.600 you could flip a switch or maybe even it's automatically activated, 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.960 and when it detects a fire, it emits this this 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.800 range of low frequency sounds and that ends up separating 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.720 the oxygen from the fuel and thus the fire goes out, Yeah, 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.560 without you having to scramble for a fire extinguisher spray 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.960 chemicals all over your food exactly. Yeah, so this could 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.359 this could be a safe way of doing that and 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.359 you don't have that those problems with the chemicals. It 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.440 also could be very useful in say spacecraft, where if 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.040 you're in a low gravity environment like a micro of 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.360 the environment, and you also don't want blobs of chemicals 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.200 floating all over the place, you probably don't want a 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.480 chemical fire extinguisher. However, you also really don't want to 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.239 fire your spacecraft. As as bad as blobs of chemicals are, 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:19.639 blobs of fire, a fire in micro gravity is is 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.600 both terrifying and awesome to view. It really looks amazing. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:25.639 I don't know if you guys have ever seen fire, 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:30.400 but it's it's it's spherical. Yeah, it doesn't elongate into 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.200 the flame that we're used to it's a sphere. So yeah, 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.600 just see a sphere of fire floating towards you. You'd 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:37.679 want to put that out right quick. It's kind of 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:42.240 like a little sun yeah yeah, plasma. Yeah, you want 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.680 to get rid of that. Uh sonic. A sonic fire 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.200 extinguisher would be potentially a very good thing to have. Now, 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:51.560 One thing that critics have pointed out, and this is 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:56.320 important to remember, is that ultimately this fire extinguisher, what 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.120 it's doing is severing one of those those three links. 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.679 You know, you're severing the oxygen from the heat and 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:07.600 the fuel. But hypothetically, once that oxygen is moved out 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.919 of the way, the rest of the air is still 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:13.600 full of oxygen and it will move back in. Yeah, 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:15.600 if you were to turn off the fire extinguisher so 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.200 it was no longer pushing stuff out of the way, 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:20.840 then once oxygen came back in, as long as the 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:26.040