Sound beaming isn't a new concept, but it's an appealing one for people who don't want to put on headphones to hear audio from highly targeted speakers. It's been implemented in extremely limited commercial and industrial scenarios, but has yet to make any meaningful consumer impact. Israeli tech firm Noveto is ready to pounce, though, beginning a tour of demonstrations before sending its SoundBeamer 1.0 to market next year.

The prototype device being shown to press right now is about as tall and slightly wider than a Nest Hub Max. It houses sensors to track a listener's ears and dual transducer arrays which direct ultrasonic audio to just outside of the canals before they become audible. With the way the sound is directed, no one else, even in proximity, should be able to hear it. There have been other devices that have made the trade show rounds before this one, but stereo sound is a new front in this field.

Noveto, with partners Foxconn and China Euro Vehicle Technology AB, expects to be able to shrink the footprint down before SoundBeamer goes commercial in December 2021. No price range has been given. The company also hopes to sell integrations into home theater, home fitness, automotive, video conferencing, and other products. In the meantime, if you snoop around the right mall or convention center, you might be able to try out the SoundBeamer for yourself.

Source: Associated Press, Noveto

Thanks: Evan