The futuristic Levitating Portable Speaker from LG Electronics is catching stares at CES 2017. The 360 degree omnidirectional speaker employs a turbine blade-inspired design and generates deep bass, mid-range, and high tones.

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Light and sound represent different types of energy, right? Not so fast, say these researchers from Yale University, whose new waveguide system allows controlling the interactions between them without sacrificing amplification. Although not a new concept, until now chips lacked the technology to implement it. Applications include fiber-optic communications and signal processing.

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In a scene that contains sound and pictures, can you tell if they both come from the same source? Many movie sound effects originated as actual sounds (filmmakers still use one classic movie splash from a recording of real sounds made in the 1940s) or sounds that some human sound technician creates (think "A Prairie Home Companion"). This article examines work at MIT to get computers to listen to an actual sound, synthesize it, and adjust it to match particular visual cues. The simulated sounds fool many people. But much work remains. The system still can't mimic a fast drum roll or construct all sounds from a complicated environment.

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In a world suffering water shortages that promise only to get worse, simply detecting and correcting leaks in existing infrastructure can improve the situation considerably. Since leaks in valves or pipes sound different from freely flowing water, detecting those differences has become imperative. This article examines available sound-detection techniques. Some solutions place detectors on pipe exteriors. But ambient noise, pipe diameters, pipe materials, and other realities of physics and fluid mechanics compromise the effectiveness of such efforts. Instead, these companies search for leaks with tethered and untethered hydrophones (water-bound microphones) that travel with the water inside the pipes, finding leaks even far underground, such as under railroad tracks or rivers.

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Can a sound hurt you even though its frequency lies above the normal range of human hearing? A resounding "yes" according to research from the University of Southampton in the UK. Loudspeakers, door sensors, public address systems, and other sources in venues such as railway stations, libraries, schools, and sports stadiums can produce a lot of these "inaudible" sounds at around 20,000 Hz. Although only a small percentage of people can actually hear sounds at those frequencies, they can cause migraines, tinnitus, and other undesirable side effects. Most existing guidelines address workplace exposure. This item suggests extending those guidelines to include casual exposure as well.

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