Acoustics & Audio Technology News

GPS navigation, plus directional buzzers, delivers you to your destination. Essentially, the experimental device is a way to walk to, from, and around your chosen destinations. The novel device comprises buzzing rings that you wear on your left and right hands, a controller with GPS, an electronic compass, and a display into which you can enter postal and zip codes.

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CR4 — GlobalSpec's Engineering Community.

Designed to be played by moving fingertips across an interactive surface, reacTable uses physical objects like blocks to create and alter music by movement. Musicians soon discovered they could bang the blocks on the table to make more realistic rock 'n' roll. Pulsating visuals animate the tabletop with light for audience-pleasing aesthetics. View the video. Why can't my computer do that?

Cable manufacturers face the challenge of meeting 10-Gbps throughput as dictated by new HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) standards while simultaneously supplying a cost-effective cable. This article explores the technical problems and parameters involved, critical questions that need to be answered, what technologies can solve them, and potential alternatives to using thicker copper. Embedded silicon semiconductors are one possibility.

Intentional production boosts in China for next-gen A/V products has allowed that country to capture 20% of the global market in HDMI/DVI connectors and cables, according to a Research and Markets report. Based on interviews with key manufacturers and onsite plant visits, the report profiles 30 major suppliers, manufacturing capabilities, and their quality systems. The supplier survey qualifies prices, products, production, and R&D focus for sourcing in China.

Programmable digital signal processors (DSPs) deliver real-time performance and allow customization of encoding software to a specific application. Numerous considerations are involved — compression, image specs, quality, storage, transmission bandwidth, etc. — all of which differ over the range of applications, such as digital video recorders, mobile video, video conferencing, and surveillance. This in-depth article examines the tradeoffs involved.

In its efforts to further reduce aircraft noise, Boeing is conducting major sound studies with a multitude of microphones to capture more data and more accurately determine noise sources. Utilizing PXI Express, engineers can build microphone arrays that connect more than 400 mikes in a 300 — 300-ft flyover grid to study landing noise.

Why not detect land mines with a $65 microphone rather than radar-beam systems whose sensors cost hundreds, especially in poor, postwar countries. Fortunately, researchers have shown that microphones positioned 1 cm above the ground can be used to successfully detect mines. Images of the data display more clutter than images based on seismic displacement using other techniques like radar, but dramatically reduce cost.

Scholar Sculptures in Sound

Unique, unusual, and one-of-a-kind can't describe these electronic musical instruments — but perhaps unbelievably original can. Created by a musician-composer who teaches at Stanford, these aptly named "sound sculptures" are fabricated from such diverse objects as artificial grass, doorstops, mousetraps, nails, plastic combs, ratchets, springs, and you name it. Wait till you read about the eureka-like strikers — SNR notwithstanding. View the bytes.