People use headphones when they need to isolate themselves while listening to audio and not disturb others. Not using headphones means that other users will listen to our music, movie or game sounds, and conversations. While in a web meeting, not using headphones and turning on the speakers means that everyone else around will listen to the conversation - which is not ideal in an open office. In a public situation having mobile devices playing content in speaker mode, playing games in a smartphone with the sound on, or making calls on speakerphone is not only an etiquette problem, it could quickly escalate to justified confrontations.
Noveto is the company that demonstrated that we could actually have sound beamed to a single user without disturbing others, through a clever combination of ultrasound beams and audio modulation to generate audible sounds within a spatial location determined by ultrasonic frequency components - in other words, beaming the sound just to our ears. The user's ears location determines the focal points for the ultrasound beams, enabling generation of audible sound in the vicinity of the designated spatial location, as described in US patent 9924290B2, awarded in 2018 to Noam Babayoff, Tomer Shani as inventors and assigned to Noveto Systems. An earlier 2017 patent from the same inventors describes a transducer system that includes a panel having one or more piezo-electric enabled foils and an arrangement of electric contacts coupled to the panel. This arrangement enables the efficient conversion of electrical signals to mechanical vibrations (acoustic waves) and/or vice versa.
The Noveto chipset holds its proprietary smart algorithm to control its sophisticated beamforming technic, face detection, tracking capabilities and state of the art DSP engines, enabling it to locate the position of the user's ears in space and beam acoustic energy around the user's head.
The combination of those patented technologies is what made Noveto's demonstrations at CES 2018 so impressive and the whole concept so appealing, particularly at a moment where voice-focused applications are receiving so much attention - and Noveto's technology is certainly appealing for next-generation smart speakers. Earlier efforts by Noveto focused mainly in promoting the technology for automotive applications and the company worked with the Volkswagen Group in promising demonstrations for vehicle cabin sound zones.
The company has been keeping busy to complete all the pieces of the solution, which includes having a convincing proof of concept in the market, while its licensing efforts continue to take place. And that's probably the reason why Noveto decided to take its "invisible headphone device" to the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform and promote a campaign for early access, stepping closer to 2021 general release.
Co-founded by Tomer Shani and Noam Babayoff in 2011, Noveto Systems began with the simple vision to free the world from the audio constraints of headphones and speakers. After years of development to mature the technology and ecosystem, Noveto is now bringing SoundBeaming to market via branded hardware and licensing under the leadership of CEO Dr. Christophe Ramstein.
The actual promoted product, the SoundBeamer 1.0, integrates all of Noveto's existing technology components - the proprietary multi-cell transducer array (in a compact form), the Noveto D1 chipset, the ultrasound 3D sensing module that tracks the position of the user's ears, and self calibrating microphones.
Noveto also says that the acoustic waves generated from its unique device - with its dedicated chipset handling numerous audio channels - enables the beamed sound system to playback and create full stereo, surround and 3D sound impressions around the users' head, which paves the way to applications in entertainment and gaming. The Noveto-developed proprietary DSP algorithms are the key to control the custom-designed transducer array which generates the waves that are beamed to the user.
Before the Kickstarter campaign, Noveto cleverly promoted the concept and revived awareness for the company through a PR effort targeting mainstream lifestyle and consumer technology websites. The SoundBeamer received applause and triggered a spike of interest for the notion of beaming sound and music directly to outside listeners' ears. Even more surprise caused the concept that the system "tracks" the ears and dynamically moves the source of the sound around the listener "in 3D" - the notion that generated sound circumvents the listeners head, "immersive" by nature.
Noveto's pre-sale campaign on Kickstarter offers limited discounts of over 40% and the company is planning to distribute devices from November 2021, limited to backers via Kickstarter. The company has reasons to be confident on that promise since they have partnered with Foxconn for the chipset that is driving the company's focused sound solution. The agreement with Foxconn, established in 2020, marked another milestone for Noveto's engineering team, paving the way for a product to be mass produced by 2021, and allowing further embedded solutions licensed by third parties.
Noveto currently holds over 44 patents (granted and pending) and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, with offices in Switzerland, Germany and the U.S. Its technology could be easily embedded in consumer electronics devices, displays, conference call solutions or any other appliance generating audio to the user. But no doubt, the concept of beaming sound only to the listener, without disturbing people nearby — no speakers, no headphones - could indeed be a wining concept in the mobile industry and a lifesaver for people working at home who don't like wearing headphones for too long.
The company’s SoundBeamer 1.0 is a compact, desktop unit that is designed primarily for video conferencing, but it could be an interesting proof of concept as a consumer device to generate awareness for the technology. The SoundBeamer 1.0 is designed to be simply paired to any Bluetooth device, such as a computer or tablet, and also features a USB-C port.
The company is also working on new hardware and software features, including a new AI-based built-in voice, facial and gesture recognition, and ambient sound monitoring enabling natural and intuitive interaction. "It's incredibly exciting to be releasing a new way to experience sound and deliver something truly groundbreaking to market. I look forward to our Kickstarter backers being the first to experience this revolution in sound that we have been working so hard to create," says Christophe Ramstein.
Access the Kickstarter campaign here.
www.noveto.com
