Disney Develops 'Magical' Device To Make Fingertips Sing

[n2doc]

By Joe Miller
BBC News

Disney has developed a device to transmit sound through the human body.

The Ishin-Den-Shin technology uses a standard microphone to record audio and then converts it into an inaudible signal transmitted through the body of the person holding the microphone.

When they touch someone's earlobe, an organic speaker is formed and the sound becomes audible, effectively whispering a message into that person's ear.

The sound can be passed from person to person using any physical contact.

The technology, which was developed at Disney Research in Pittsburgh, received an honorary mention at this week's Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24031948

Ahh, the many, many uses this might be put too....

[LiberalEsto]

1. Uses like making us hear "It's a Small World" 24/7

until everybody is stark raving batshit insane.

[Taverner]

2. Takes advertising to a new level (or low)

[X_Digger]

3. And y'all thought I was crazy with my finger-in-ear phone. Hah!

I was just.. ahead of my time.

[Duer 157099]

4. So this is gonna backfire soon

[Duer 157099]

5. The mind boggles with application ideas

A Shure 55 microphone is connected to a computer’s sound card. The microphone is recording as soon as a sounds of amplitude higher than a set threshold is sensed. The computer then create a loop with the recording, that is sent back to an amplification driver. This amplification driver converts the recorded sound signal into a high voltage, low current (<300 Vpp, <50 uA) inaudible signal. The output of the amplification hardware is connected to the conductive metallic casing of the microphone via a very thin, almost invisible wire wrapped around the microphone audio cable. When holding the microphone, the visitor comes in contact with the inaudible, high voltage, low power version of the recorded sound. This creates a modulated electrostatic filed around the visitors’ skin. When touching another person’s ear, this modulated electrostatic field creates a very small vibration of the ear lobe. As a result, both the finger and the ear together form a speaker, that makes the signal audible for the person touched. The inaudible signal can be transmitted from body to body, using any sort of physical contact.