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Engineers in Japan have developed a new way to levitate objects using sound only

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Engineers in Japan have discovered how to float up objects from reflective surfaces utilizing sound waves.

Engineers Shota Kondo and Kan Okubo of Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan have discovered how to build a hemispherical acoustic array that may carry a 3-millimeter polystyrene ball from a reflective floor. “We propose a multi-channel hemispherical ultrasonic transducer array for non-contact pick-up on a rigid stage with reflection,” they wrote in their paper.

The transducer uses sequences of high voltage electrical pulses to vibrate a moving voice coil. The harder the coil vibrates, the louder the sound will be. The faster the coil vibrates, the greater will be its pitch or frequency. The ultrasonic transducer transmits ultrasonic sound, or sound with a frequency greater than 20kHz, which humans can’t hear. Greater the amplitude or loudness of sound, the more force it will be generating to levitate objects. 

Engineers further added, “The phase and amplitude of each channel are optimized using the sound reproduction method. This creates an acoustic trap at only the desired position, and pick-up can thus be realized on the rigid stage. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate non-contact pickup using this approach.”

Their method depends on splitting the transducer array into blocks. Then, they used an inverse filter to reproduce sounds primarily based on the sonic waveform. This helps optimize the part and amplitude of every transducer channel to produce the specific acoustic area. That acoustic area is generally the focus of the hemisphere. 

Three-dimensional simulations confirmed how and the place the sector was being generated utilizing these strategies.  “In further studies,” the researchers wrote, “the robustness of the proposed method will be improved for practical use of non-contact.”

ARTICLE: PATEL CHAITANYA

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: ARCHWORLDYS.COM

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