Imagine this: You’re walking down the street one day, and as you pass a glass-fronted sign with a clown on it hawking burgers you suddenly start hearing music and the words “wouldn’t you like a burger?” Then, as soon as you’ve walked past, the sound is gone. It sounds like science fiction, but Turtle Beach’s new HyperSound Glass could make it a reality. Billed as the world’s first transparent direction speakers, these magic little wonders produce sound that can only be heard when they’re pointed at you and the applications are fascinating.
HyperSound Glass will be making its official debut at the 2016 Electronics Entertainment Expo June 14-16 at the L.A. Convention Center, but the company has released a demo video that’s simply incredible. The glass works by generating a highly direction beam of sound that travels through the air towards you. Think of it as sound that’s focused like a beam from a flashlight. If you’re in its path you’ll get crisp clean audio, but your friend standing next to won’t hear a thing.
For daily laptop users, the idea of one day being able to listen to music without headphones or bothering the people around you is a promising one. Imagine hearing your favorite songs via a beam of sound sent directly from your laptop. Turtle Beach already has this application in mind, along with commercial displays and car windshields.
In a perfect world, these could create car speakers you couldn’t blow out or ATMs that talked to you while keeping your information private from the person standing behind you in line. Or hey, imagine how nice riding the bus would be if smartphone audio was directional. No more listening to your seat mates crappy tunes. They’d be the only one to hear it, with or without headphones.
You can watch a demo of the HyperSound Glass below, or see it for yourself June 14-16 at the L.A. Convention Center.