Yeah, I've been following this technology for a while, set up an email alert when there was news about it, etc. I must say that I find it absolutely fascinating, and am looking forward to it being used sparingly, but once it becomes prevalent, it'll just be too annoying.

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My understanding is that it uses ultrasound, so it's only a matter of time before there's some form of ill-conceived panic.

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Personally, I think when they cross that line that they're advertising inside my head, I'm pissed off. There is (or should be) a consent issue here, and I do not consent to have ads beamed into my brainmeats.

My first thought when I read about this a couple of days ago was the same as yours -- you transmit voices into an unstable person's head and bad, bad things could happen.

But the time will come when Nike shoots Ad Rays into our craniums while we're sleeping, and we'll dream of millionaire athletes pitching running shoes. And we'll all just go that much crazier. This might be a good time to get into the tinfoil-hat business.

Edited at 2007-12-18 05:57 pm (UTC)

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Is Network 23 still killing people with Blipverts™?

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Actually, the way the technology works is that it surrounds the acoustic energy in a kind of ultrasonic tunnel. So really all it is is a clever way of keeping loudspeaker advertising from pissing off the neighbors. They're not putting ads into your brain. Yet.

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Leela: "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"
Fry: "Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in
magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams!
No sirree."
— Futurama

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The creepy possibility that I wonder how long it'll take on is this: Stalkers with these, and microphones. In your head.

Sure, at the moment the size and range of the speakers probably rules that out. But for how long?

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It disgusts me almost as much already. It's almost as bad when it's a company who sees you as a passive, uncomplaining automaton they can stuff with their stupid advertising, as it would be if it were a stalker targeting you in particular. Either way, the people pushing this thing should get the hell out of our personal space. Didn't invite them, don't want them there.

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Technologically this is cool. practically? its a nightmare.
will people walk into traffic from being scared and distracted? have a breakdown? just get angry and try to find the things and kill them?
i am sure watching loads of people spinning around in panic is funny, to some people....

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just get angry and try to find the things and kill them?

I'm already at this point and the things aren't anywhere near where I am.

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There is a national movement to get rid of billboards, with an opposite (well funded) lobby. Here in Houston, Texas the city government is working to get rid of them entirely. I think advertising will eventually become "Opt-in" via your internet enabled phone, or other device. Traditional media will still have their ads as well. As new technologies become more mainstream, you will see porn, warez and adverts on there before most other kids of information.

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Actually, I'm pretty sure just the reverse will happen. Advertising is CONSTANTLY creeping into the private sphere and in areas where it should be impossible, and I don't see this trend reversing, especially since colleges keep stamping out marketing majors at a frightening rate. Here in Boston, there's flipbook-type advertising on the side of SUBWAY TUNNELS. And people pay sickening sums of money to be billboards anyway.

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I hate the idea of it, it infuriates me. There are a lot of sci-fi things that should stay sci-fi (but sadly many of them won't).

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The idea, I think, is great. Beaming tightly controlled messages to exactly where they need to go with little to no outside interference from any source, and little to no chance of it getting garbled.

The implementation, using it as ads and subliminal ads (the sound of a soda can opening suddenly plays in your mind when you're standing near a soda machine), is a nightmare.

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Give an Oven to creative persons and they make enrichments to our world.
The same sort of device in evil hands burns victims live or dead.
It's all about how any device is used or misused. Wise or Unwise uses.

That same directional sound "zone" can guide a blind person safely thru dangers or drive anyone insane as a PsyOps tool. Gaslighting Uber Alles?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

Or we can by social contract mandate that entertainment sounds be confined to the desired areas. That means no more excuses for ThumpThumpCars or that @$^%@& TV keeping us awake!

THEY get to hear what they want to WHERE they are- And WE do NOT hear unwanted intrusions. Again- it's all dependent on social custom.

Sigh- /me may invest in the Krapco SonicRapistRapCannon after all.

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Sidewalk audio spam makes me glad for once that I'm nearly deaf. I'm already in the habit of ignoring people who randomly talk to me on the street for no reason.

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Oh, goody! Ear-rape!

Just the thing to make me want to watch their wonderful show!

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Definitely need to buy stock in tinfoil...

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I wonder what the rate of triggering an epileptic seizure will be.

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I just can't wait to see what happens the first time someone hacks one of these to whisper "They're watching you. Kill them first." in a demonic voice.

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The guy who owns the patents on this stuff is J.P. Freeley. Nice enough guy, a little weird (who isn't) and with a personal story slightly strange enough to be worth googling.

Anyways, I got a demonstration of this technology from him about 4 years ago. It's a strange experience hearing the sound coming from around your head. That said, back then at least, it didn't work quite as well as he'd like you to believe. There were definite splash effects to the floor and people around you. It was pretty obvious that this advertising would be audible from 5 or 6 feet away and in a still room, from a good 30 feet away at least as a whisper even when it was just hitting the floor. Maybe the technology has progressed since then, and even then, it was STILL a ridiculously awesome technical achievement, but it isn't quite as non noise-polluting as they claim.

His claims to use this tech for in home speakers might be viable, but I'm not enough an audiophile to be able to tell. Certainly, it sounds like nothing I've ever heard before when it comes to speakers. It has a crystal sharp clarity to notes that is lacking in nature.

Anyways, about the elves. What Freeley really wanted to market this stuff for was to put advertisements in convenience stores. Up on the ceiling, imploring you to "Buy Chex Mix," or "Buy Cheerios" as you went down the food aisle.

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One of the articles I read about this says the device got stolen twice in one day.

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I would press charges faster then you could say boo.

As far as I'm concerned that is both trespassing and assault.

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when this first came out, all I could think was "aha!! Now we know how to take over the world! Use the technology to target the schitzoids to Kill the Malaysian Prime Minister!"

I suspect it will get banned by local ordinance a lot of places... since there's no "opt out"

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"Captive Audience" by Ann Warren Griffith ©1958 found from a great collection of Sci-Fi from the early-mid 50s.

Found it in some strange place since moving to Texas.

Book is called "tomorrow, inc" with the subtitle of "SF stories about Big Business."

Find it if you can. You might enjoy it. Lately a lot of things have reminded me of two stories in particular. This news story plus your description today of the whole 3-D thing in the markets she wrote about back then. Dark City reminds me of a story from the book that is not as good but it is from the same book "The Tunnel Under the World" by Frederik Pohl ©1954.

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As somebody who is anxious and startles extremely easily, I hatehateHATE the idea of something like this.

(I hate to think what a soldier with PTSD, fresh from Iraq, would think if he heard invisible voices in the air.)

I hope somebody gets hurt (not too badly) as a result of this technology, and sues the shit out of the company so it will never see the light of day again.

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My brother, a Mechanical Engineering student in Dallas, claims that holograms are on their way to market and should be out in a couple of years.

Man, but it's cool to live in the future.

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I don't like this idea. I know someone who's schizophrenic and talks about people using soundwaves to do things. Technology like this just reinforces those beliefs.

Also, it's got to be damned annoying. It reminds me of the overwhelming advertising in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

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A small Metal bar here has a smirnoff vodka sign originally designed to swing back-and-forth, creating the logo with LCD flashes as it swung. The row of LCDs has been removed from the swingy part, and mounted on the bar. You only see the logo when your eye roams over it, so it appears in the corners of your eye, but you can't find the source or look directly at it.

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