If you're not up to speed on your Kurt Vonnegut and Ice 9 is unfamiliar to you, just click on the title, read a short couple of paragraphs and then come back here.
The innocuous little beauty pictured here is called an audio spotlight system, developed by a well-meaning but short-sighted company called Holosonics. Basically an audio spotlight is a focused beam of inaudible ultra-sound.
So what good is that? Is it just another kind of dog whistle? Ah, grasshopper, be afraid... be VERY afraid. The way Holosonics is selling this product sounds good, but there is a dark side.
You see, all sound waves need a medium through which to travel -- air is one example -- and that medium distorts the wave, making it audible. Focused properly, the wave can be made audible at pretty precise distances. The technology has several practical uses currently in play -- museums and libraries can keep large spaces quiet while offering Audio Spotlight systems in specific areas; one passes by an exhibit and hears an explanation, while someone ten feet away hears nothing. Cool, huh?
The equipment might also prove useful for home audio systems and end the time-honored battle of television volume or choice of music. Wifey watches Desperate Housewives, you listen to a Knicks game, and never the twain shall meet.
So what's so bad? A walk down a supermarket aisle will become a gauntlet of advertising -- audible land mines everywhere, hawking cereal, jams, jellies, prophylactics (do you want your CHILDREN listening to this?) and the people up at the cash registers hear nothing!
And how about driving down the Jersey Turnpike? It might be nice to hear a crisp warning about an accident ahead, but what about the McDonald's that's five miles up the road?
Jaxonia's advice -- buy some earmuff stock!
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