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IIRC, there was some commercial product - years ago - that worked by using ultrasonic data transfer. It went something like this: You install some app on your

IIRC, there was some commercial product - years ago - that worked by using ultrasonic data transfer. It went something like this: You install some app on your phone, which then listens for incoming audio in the ultrasonic range. The audio is coded instructions, which then would do things like blink a light on your phone or whatever. The idea was that this could be used at events (sport, music, whatever) to create light shows on the mobiles, without relying on good wifi coverage or similar in the avenue. As you could use the PA for the data transmission.

avsm 1y ago
We demonstrated this in 2003 using the smartphones of the era (they didn’t have good filters, so you could detect ultrasound quite easily). See https://anil.recoil.org/papers/audio-networking.pdf https://anil.recoil.org/papers/audio-networking.pdf sec 2.1 for the 2003 paper and some ancient videos at https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ubiqinteraction https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ubiqinteraction if you want some Nokia nostalgia :-)
tanepiper 1y ago
I wrote a very similar web implementation 12 years ago as a proof of concept - if it got the go-ahead, the plan was to test it with some commercial TV broadcasting in the UK where a ultrasonic short code could be sent to phones using an app with a Web view, or possibly native app. Sadly never got picked up, although we proved the concept could work - but it certainly had it's challenges. https://github.com/tanepiper/adOn-soundlib https://github.com/tanepiper/adOn-soundlib https://github.com/tanepiper/adon-ad-platform https://github.com/tanepiper/adon-ad-platform
mgraczyk 1y ago
Google explored doing this with devices that connect to each other, specifically Chromecast and their early Google Home devices. I don't think it ever launched but Google did some interesting experiments to test the ultrasonic transfer functions on millions of consumer devices. (I worked in audio research at Google at the time but not on this). I believe the main problem is that it makes dogs go crazy
- pests 1y ago
  I might be misremembering but I am 99% sure the early Chromecasts had this. It was a “Guest Mode” for when you wanted to share access to a device not on the network. I don’t think it lasted for long.
  - mgraczyk 1y ago
    Ah you are correct: https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/how-can-chromecast-connect-to-your-friends-phones-without-using-wifi-ultrasonic-sounds/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/how-can-chromecast-connect... I couldn't remember if it actually shipped in anything, but looks like it did!
tkanarsky 1y ago
The official Blackpink (kpop group) light sticks from one of their tours have this functionality built in. The annoying part is that one of their Spotify albums have this 18-20khz control track present, and (when I was younger) I could hear it and it annoyed the heck out of me.

avsm 1y ago

We demonstrated this in 2003 using the smartphones of the era (they didn’t have good filters, so you could detect ultrasound quite easily). See https://anil.recoil.org/papers/audio-networking.pdf https://anil.recoil.org/papers/audio-networking.pdf sec 2.1 for the 2003 paper and some ancient videos at https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ubiqinteraction https://anil.recoil.org/projects/ubiqinteraction if you want some Nokia nostalgia :-)

tanepiper 1y ago

I wrote a very similar web implementation 12 years ago as a proof of concept - if it got the go-ahead, the plan was to test it with some commercial TV broadcasting in the UK where a ultrasonic short code could be sent to phones using an app with a Web view, or possibly native app. Sadly never got picked up, although we proved the concept could work - but it certainly had it's challenges. https://github.com/tanepiper/adOn-soundlib https://github.com/tanepiper/adOn-soundlib https://github.com/tanepiper/adon-ad-platform https://github.com/tanepiper/adon-ad-platform

mgraczyk 1y ago

Google explored doing this with devices that connect to each other, specifically Chromecast and their early Google Home devices. I don't think it ever launched but Google did some interesting experiments to test the ultrasonic transfer functions on millions of consumer devices. (I worked in audio research at Google at the time but not on this). I believe the main problem is that it makes dogs go crazy

pests 1y ago
I might be misremembering but I am 99% sure the early Chromecasts had this. It was a “Guest Mode” for when you wanted to share access to a device not on the network. I don’t think it lasted for long.
- mgraczyk 1y ago
  Ah you are correct: https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/how-can-chromecast-connect-to-your-friends-phones-without-using-wifi-ultrasonic-sounds/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/26/how-can-chromecast-connect... I couldn't remember if it actually shipped in anything, but looks like it did!

tkanarsky 1y ago

The official Blackpink (kpop group) light sticks from one of their tours have this functionality built in. The annoying part is that one of their Spotify albums have this 18-20khz control track present, and (when I was younger) I could hear it and it annoyed the heck out of me.