Today's Article

Sriram Subramanian, AcoustoFab Co-Founder: We've been working on 4acoustic levitation for the last decade or decade and a half. We've always been looking and exploring ways in which we can 5float objects 6in mid-air using 7ultrasound and it was always a 8blue sky idea until about a year ago when some of my co-founders were saying, Oh, maybe there's a 9commercial opportunity for this.

CNN Narrator: AcoustoFab has perfected the ability to pick up a 10droplet or a small 11particle, 12adjust it mid-air, then move it to a specific location, doing all of this with only using sound waves. The new technology uses a range of tiny speakers set at 40 kHz to 13generate the sound waves, outside of the 14audible range for humans.

Sriram Subramanian: The magic trick is we time the turning on and off of each individual speaker precisely. So, when we turn them on and off at different time 15intervals, they create a pattern, and we can 16computationally using acoustic 17holography shape the sound field in the far field however you want. So, for example, we can make them all come together to a point and they can we can make 18transducers from the bottom and from the top come to two different points that are half a wavelength apart. Then if you put an object there, it is going to be held in place.

CNN Narrator: AcoustoFab has been 19demonstrating their Sound Levitation Kit at tech fairs around the world. They say research labs can buy a basic kit for academic use starting at $3,100.