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Showing posts with the label University of Tokyo

Levitating Objects With Soundwaves

Have you ever thought of finding a way to levitate? It is possible to move objects around with nothing but your IPod Player….ok Not Really! Researches Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi and Jun Rekimoto learned how to suspend an object in air using nothing but sound waves ( 1 ).  The difference between this study and others is that this is the first time scientists were able to not only suspend the objects but also move them around by manipulating the sound waves.  The concept of levitation sound waves have been around for some time. They moved tiny beads around in different directions versus only straight up and down. By bouncing the waves off a solid plate, they can concentrate and adjust the waves to create the right pressures ( 2 ).  The University of Tokyo scientists write in their paper, “ Our manipulation system has two original features. One is the direction of the ultrasound beam, which is arbitrary because the force acting toward its [center] is also utilized. The othe