A new technology called “sound beaming” developed by Noveto Systems allows listeners to hear music or sound without wearing headphones.

All that is needed is a simple device which tracks the ear and sends it audio using ultrasonic waves, creating personal listening experiences inside of a sound bubble, Times Of Israel reported.

The technology allows listeners to listen to music, play a game, or watch a movie without disturbing anyone else. That being said, unless you are within the distance of the device you won’t be able to hear sounds.

“You don’t believe it because it sounds like a speaker, but no one else can hear it… it’s supporting you and you’re in the middle of everything. It’s happening around you,” Product Manager Ayana Wallwater said.

In other words, the lack of headphones means it’s possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly.

The technology uses a 3-D model which locates and tracks the ear position sending audio via ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets around the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or a spatial 3-D mode that creates 360-degree sound around the listener, the company said in a statement to the Associated Press which reviewed the device.

Although the technology is being heralded as “new,” it’s anything but new; Noveto is simply the first to launch the technology in a consumer sense and their SoundBeamer 1.0 desktop device will be the first branded product. However, the technology before being called “sound beaming” is known as “microwave hearing,” which is documented with a former unclassified document from the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command received via a Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA) request back in 2006 entitled “Bioeffects of Selected Nonlethal Weapons.”

The document is dated 1998, more than 20 years ago. One of the main topics regards the effects of “radio frequency directed energy.” The document discusses the “incapacitating effect” of “microwave hearing:”

There is no sound propagated through the air like normal  sound. This technology in its crudest form could be used to distract  individuals; if refined, it could also be used to communicate with  hostages or hostage takers directly by Morse code or other message  systems, possibly even by voice communication.

According to that document, the technology is able to be tuned into a single person like a radio station.

The phenomenon is tunable in that the characteristic sounds and  intensities of those sounds depend on the characteristics of the RF  energy as delivered. Because the frequency of the sound heard is  dependent on the pulse characteristics of the RF energy, it  seems possible that this technology could be developed to the point  where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word,  except that it could only be heard within a person’s head. In one experiment, communication of the words from one to ten using ‘speech modulated’ microwave energy was successfully demonstrated. Microphones next to the person experiencing the voice could not pick up the sound. Additional development of this would open up a wide range of possibilities.

If you dig even deeper, there is an old reference on the Army’s website for a technology called “Voice To Skull.” (ARMY SITE YANKED WIRED REPORTED) [ARCHIVED COPY OF ARMY PAGE]

This technology is very similar to sound beaming.

Voice To Skull is described in the patent as a “hearing system” where “Sound is induced in the head of a person by radiating the head with microwaves in the range of 100 megahertz to  10,000 megahertz that are modulated with a particular waveform.”

Similar psychotronic technology to “Voice To Skull” that wasn’t directly beaming frequencies into people but rather using radio stations to broadcast a signal outside of the human hearing range was used by the Pentagon known as Silent Sound Spread  Spectrum (SSSS) or S-quad. U.S. Psychological Operations officers tested  this technology on Iraqi troops in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

A news briefing detailed how American troops would take over the Iraqis’ FM stations and broadcast a silent signal underneath the audible programming:

The clandestine station programming consisted of  patriotic and religious music and intentionally vague, confusing and  contradictory military orders and information to the Iraqi soldiers in  the Kuwaiti Theater of Command (KTO). The size and power of enemy forces  was always intentionally exaggerated. Surrender was encouraged. According to statements made by captured and deserting Iraqi  soldiers, however, the most devastating and demoralizing programming was  the first known military use of the new, high tech, type of subliminal  messages referred to as Ultra-High-Frequency ‘Silent Sounds’ or ‘Silent  Subliminals’. (Newsweek, July 30, 1990, Page 61) Although completely silent to the human ear, the negative  voice messages placed on the tapes alongside the audible programming by  psyops psychologists were clearly perceived by the subconscious minds of  the Iraqi soldiers and the silent messages completely demoralized and  instilled a perpetual feeling of fear and hopelessness in their minds.

Then there is the suggestion of using Voice To Skull technology in Afghanistan under the moniker “Voice Of Allah” a few years back under the George Bush administration. That plan also included the broadcasting of a hologram image of what Allah was depicted to have looked like.  Further, there was a plan years prior to do the same thing to other Arab nations.

“The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that washingtonpost.com learned that a super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for application to PSYOPS.  The “Holographic Projector” is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to “project information power from space … for special operations deception missions,” The Washington Post wrote.

Steven Corman, writing at the COMOPS journal, described his own encounter with this technology:

At a government workshop some time ago I heard someone describe a new tool that was described as the “voice of Allah.” This was said to be a device that would operate at a distance and would deliver a message that only a  single person could hear. The story was that it was tested in a conflict situation in Iraq and pointed at one insurgent in a group, who whipped around looking in all directions, and began a heated conversation with his compatriots, who did not hear the message. At the time I greeted this story with some skepticism.

Holosonic Research Labs and American Technology Corporation both have versions of directed sound, which can allow a single person to hear a message that others around don’t hear. Holosonic sells a technology called “Audio Spot Light,” while ATC sells the Long Range Acoustic Device. DARPA also has its own sonic projector. Intriguingly, Strategy Page reported that troops used LRAD as a modified Voice of God weapon:

It appears  that some of the troops in Iraq are using “spoken” (as opposed to “screeching”) LRAD to mess with enemy fighters. Islamic terrorists tend  to be superstitious and, of course, very religious. LRAD can put the  “word of God” into their heads. If God, in the form of a voice that only  you can hear, tells you to surrender, or run away, what are you gonna do?

CNET once also reported on the technology, noting that users don’t hear sound through their ears; instead, the sound resonates and reverberates inside the person’s head … except in that case it was used for advertising.

The folks who heard the ad for A&E’s TV show “Paranormal State” emitted from a billboard in New York City’s Greenwich Village must have  thought it was pretty weird. As they walked into the targeted area they were exposed to highly focused sound, picked up not by their ears, but by their skulls. The otherwise inaudible sound waves are experienced via  bone conduction–the sound resonates inside the passerby’s head.

You can watch the latest sound beaming technology by Noveto Systems in the video below reviewed by Associated Press.