By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:37 GMT, 23 January 2019 | Updated: 08:19 GMT, 24 January 2019
8 shares
1
View
comments
Researchers have revealed a radical laser gun that can beam audio directly into a person's ear across a room.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory have been able to transmit various tones, music and recorded speech at a conversational volume.
They say they breakthrough could have a dramatic effect on everything from warfare, allowing messages to be sent to troops, to being heard across a noisy room.
Scroll down for video
The MIT team say their breakthrough could have dramatic effects on everything from warfare to being heard across a noisy room.
The system uses a technique known as the photoacoustic effect, which occurs when a material forms sound waves after absorbing light.
For their project, the researchers used water vapor in the air to absorb light and create sound.
A laser transmits the message, which is encoded upon a modulated laser beam and sent directly to the receiver’s ear via the photoacoustic effect.
'Our system can be used from some distance away to beam information directly to someone's ear,' said research team leader Charles M. Wynn.
'It is the first system that uses lasers that are fully safe for the eyes and skin to localize an audible signal to a particular person in any setting.'
The system uses a
