Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad

Ad Age ^ | December 10, 2007 | Andrew Hampp

[Sarajevo]

I guess that my tagline no longer applies;-)

[trailboss800]

ping

[meadsjn]

We did this back in the ‘70s with a fire control radar dish (power off). We could speak softly or whisper across the front of the dish, and people on the deck or pier over 200 feet away could hear the voice as if it were originating right beside them (or inside their head). All it requires is a correctly shaped dish pointed at the intended recipient.

[The Working Man]

“We did this back in the ‘70s with a fire control radar dish (power off). We could speak softly or whisper across the front of the dish, and people on the deck or pier over 200 feet away could hear the voice as if it were originating right beside them (or inside their head). All it requires is a correctly shaped dish pointed at the intended recipient.”

You too?! I could tell you a very humourous tale about a guy who used this same trick to get a date. San Diego Broadway pier was the location...

[Eye of Unk]

Reynolds Wraps anyone?

[mkjessup]

So now we know how they get those females to pull their clothes off for ‘Girls Gone Wild’.

No wonder the guy is in jail. LOL

[joeystoy]

My wife and I were having dinner in a Paris restaurant a few years ago when I started hearing voices. Really.

The ceiling of the dining room was shaped like a planetarium dome. I scanned the room and way on the other side I could see the lips of another patron synced up to the words I was hearing. The Mrs. looked at me like I was nuts, until I asked her to switched seats with me.

“Wow, that’s creepy.”

There must have been 80 people in the room, but I heard that conversation as if they were standing right next to me.

It reminded me of the “Whisper Dish” that I first saw at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

[ninonitti]

I guess I’ll have to really dust off my tinfoil.

That voice in my head is telling me to do the same thing.......do the same thing......do the same thing

[6SJ7]

Great. First it’s ‘talk like a pirate day’. Now it’s ‘talk like a schizophrenic day’.

[blanknoone]

“What’s the frequency Kenneth?”

[TXnMA]

From the article:

"So a customer, for example, looking to buy laundry detergent could suddenly hear the sound of gurgling water and thus feel compelled to buy Tide as a result of the sonic experience."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can think of other likely responses...

'-)

[wideminded]

Are you sure? (About the cross-section piece of your explanation...) I read some time ago about how something like this worked in the laboratory.

The advantage of having two beams that only intersect at one point is that the audible sound will appear to originate only from this one location. If the two beams run along the same path, there will will audible sound coming from all the points on this path. Of course the resulting sound will also be directional.

I have never seen either method in operation but I heard about the intersecting beam method from someone who should know (an expert on the physics of sound). Doing some research online though, I see that the systems currently marketed work as you say, with co-linear beams.

The Wikipedia article about this is here. (It seems to need a little more editing.) The most successful system being marketed appears to be the one called "Audio Spotlight".

[null and void]

It sounds like it might also be useful for heckling politicians and the like. Can you imagine, the questioning looks, after they start complaining they were hearing voices.

Sadly the ones who really hear voices have learned not to say anything about it.

Right Hillary!™???

[Bon mots]

I’m not sure either, but I know that ultrasound and sub-bass do not really reveal an origin - that is, you cannot really tell which direction their coming from, and with ultrasound, it’s enough to point it at someone and it seems to be right inside their head.

If I remember correctly, it has something to do with resonant frequencies - or is it making your eardrum vibrate via sympathetic vibrations?

Whatever it is, it’s fascinating stuff!

[Bon mots]

“We did this back in the ‘70s with a fire control radar dish (power off). We could speak softly or whisper across the front of the dish, and people on the deck or pier over 200 feet away could hear the voice as if it were originating right beside them (or inside their head). All it requires is a correctly shaped dish pointed at the intended recipient.”

That reminds me of one of those old 3 dimensional movies that they used to show in a dome-shaped building. You would lie on the ground and look up at the roof of this giant dome shaped building and the surround effect would look very real.

Anyway, we went into one of those things in a large group, and we were on one side of the thing and our friends were on the other with a whole crowd of noisy people between us. We could hear every word our friends said when they were talking - it seems the sound followed the inside contour of the dome over the crowd directly to us.

[longtermmemmory]

audio spam.

[Dacus943]

"I can think of other likely responses... "

LOL! Like the Air Freshener isle.

[longtermmemmory]

would this not violate the can spam law?

It is an electronic communication which has been unsolicited and the reciever has not consented to recieve it.

This audio spam should be illegal under CURRENT law.

[Cacique]

ping

[fishhound]

Wouldn’t somekind of phase shift be necessary so that the two beams don’t step on each other?...my freshman question.