Sonic Tractor Beam

While it’s not quite the stuff of Star Trek, a new technique has been developed for manipulating small objects using high-amplitude sound waves. The breakthrough could lead to sonic production lines for assembling delicate objects, or microsurgical instruments that move through living tissue, all without the need for physical contact.

Anyone who has felt the impact of a sonic boom, or the beat of a good sub-woofer, knows that sound has a physical effect on matter. But a group of scientists recently illustrated that such effects could be controlled to a degree that was never before possible. Using an array of 64 miniature loudspeakers, they created a high-pitch, high-intensity acoustic force field that was capable of holding an object in mid-air. They also found that the object could be moved or rotated by carefully controlling the output of the loudspeakers individually.

Three different types of acoustic force fields are described in the research – one that works like a “holographic tweezers” to hold an object in place, one that functions as a vortex to trap an object at its core, and one that surrounds objects like a high intensity cage. Although they may not be ready to take on Klingon warships, these acoustic “holograms” could have profound impacts in any number of future applications.