Dr. Asier Marzo of the University of Bristol in Britain, Sriram Subramanian, Professor of Informatics at the University of Sussex, Bruce Drinkwater, Professor of Ultrasonics in the University of Bristol’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and a company named Ultrahaptics announced the first sonic tractor beam in the edition of the journal Nature Communications. The sonic tractor beam can do almost everything that tractor beams in science fiction movies can do. The major difference is the use of sound instead of light.
The sonic tractor beam involves 64 miniature loudspeakers. The sounds produced are high-intensity and high-pitch and thus have the energy needed to manipulate objects. The sonic tractor beam has been proven to be able to lift objects, hold objects in place, rotate multiple objects, and move small objects. Manipulation of the intensity of sound from each of the loudspeakers produces three kinds of force that are necessary for the flexibility of motion that the device has demonstrated. The utility of the device is limited only by the size of the speakers and the frequency of the sound.
The sonic tractor beam has immediate useful purposes and is just not a theoretical construction. Some of the work planned for the sonic tractor beam includes the manipulation of almost microscopic computer parts, a human-free addition to production lines, and a method of handling dangerous materials without any human contact. The array of speakers creates an acoustic hologram that enables an operator to handle an infinite number of objects at the same time. This is not quite ‘Star Trek’ but it is close. A video of the device in action can be seen here
Unfortunately, the sonic tractor beam cannot transport people in its present state of development. Transcranial magnetic stimulation has shown distinct changes in the human brain causes by sound that would make moving people with the sonic tractor beam potentially harmful. While a device that is large enough could transport material across any ocean the technology has not developed to that extent either..
