Researchers at Cornell University have developed a portable high intensity ultrasound system. They have built a small battery powered demonstration device.
For more information, read their journal article, “Development of a portable therapeutic and high intensity ultrasound system for military, medical, and research use“
Tracerline have a product called the TP-9370 Marksman™ Ultrasonic Diagnostic Tool which has a sensor to detect ultrasonic noise sources and convert them to an audible signal for listening through a pair of headphones. The tool is intended for detecting the location of leaks.
Federal Mogul have developed an acoustic liner that is made from recycled materials including cardboard, carpet fibres, and other fabrics. The first application will be the 2010 Buick LaCrosse luxury sedan.
For more information, read the press release on the Federal Mogul web site.
A conference is currently underway on the topic of Energy Harvesting from sources such as vibration, wind, sun and others.
The Energy Harvesting Journal has a good commentary on the conference with extracts from experts in the field.
TMC have released an actively vibration isolated floor system that uses piezoelectric actuators. The platform is available in two options to isolate 3 or 6 degrees of freedom.
For more information see the TMC web site.
Raytheon has won a $US19m contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a vehicle mounted land mine detection system that uses a laser radar vibration sensor.
For more information read the news release on the Raytheon web site.
The 2008 Ig Nobel prizes were awarded recently which included an award to Massimiliano Zampini (University of Trento, Italy) and Charles Spence (Oxford University, UK) for conducting listening tests with people and found that by electronically modifying the sound that a potato chip makes when chewed can make the person think it is crisper and fresher.
Their work was published in the Journal of Sensory Studies.
In one of the largest hearing loss studies ever conducted, the results show there is a strong correlation between hearing loss and smoking, and that it is dose-related. There was also a strong correlation between body-mass-index and hearing loss. On the upside, the results from the study show that moderate alcohol consumption had an ‘inverse correlation’ with hearing loss, meaning that some drinking seems to decrease the likelihood of age related hearing loss.
Read the entire journal paper here.
Finis have released an MP3 player for use by swimmers that uses bone conduction to transmit sound instead of conventional loudspeakers.
For details see the Finis Inc. web site.
A collaboration between several research groups has found that a particular frog from China has the ability to ‘tune’ its hearing to a particular frequency range by opening and closing its Eustachian tubes. The researchers claim that this frog is the only known animal that can actively select the frequency range of interest.
Read the full news article on Medical News Today.