Beamed Sonic Advertising Is Coming 396
newtley writes in with a story from Ad Age a few days back. "Advertisers are determined to get into your head by one means or another, and Holosonic Research Labs has found yet another way of invading your privacy in the name of forcing you pay attention. You're walking down a street in New York when all of a sudden, a woman's voice whispers 'Who's that? Who's There?' No, you weren't having a psychotic episode; you were being subjected without your permission to 'sound in a narrow beam, just like light.' It was coming at you from a rooftop speaker seven stories up."
Re:Not invading your privacy... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Only one reasonable approach... (Score:1, Informative)
This is a particularly invasive and obnoxious form of advertising - they *force* you to hear their message. Your response is entirely reasonable.
It works and it's freaky (Score:5, Informative)
It's really freaky when someone waves these ultrasonic speakers around and the sound washes over you like a spotlight. But in our experiments the sound was really tinny, just like a paranoid voice in your head
Re:It works and it's freaky (Score:2, Informative)
Anyway, that was a dodgy lab setup. I'm hope the commercial units are more effective.
Re:Pandora's box (Score:2, Informative)
No. From TFA:
And if you go to the Holosonics website [holosonics.com], you would have seen that the first uses for it were in libraries and museums, with the intent of allowing people to hear audio without disturbing other patrons. The first use "they" thought of was to maximize the enjoyment of multiple people visiting typically quiet places.
Um. OK, what imaginary entity that creates new technology applications works like that? Seriously, other than a 100% Government-funded research lab, *everybody* who makes something new has to think "how can we make money with this?" or they stop being able to afford... well, the ability to make cool new stuff!
I think you're angry about the use of this for advertising, and I agree, it would be annoying if used on a large scale - like, for example, if *everything* you walked by on the street tried to whisper stuff in your ear. On a funny note, if you read the comments from the original article, it appears as though several commentators believe that this technology actually (somehow?) beams energy directly into your brain which causes you to "hear" stuff.
Re:Only one reasonable approach... (Score:3, Informative)
(It was in London if anyone cares.)
Re:Pandora's box (Score:3, Informative)
http://web.archive.org/web/20000302223042/www.bbc.co.uk/tw/stories/technology/0001audiospotlight.shtml [archive.org]
The relevant part of the episode is still hosted by Holosonic.
http://www.holosonics.com/media/BBC_TW_AudioSpotlight_1Mbps.mpg [holosonics.com]
Their website also lists alternative applications..
http://www.holosonics.com/customers.html [holosonics.com]