Highly Directional Multi-Beam Audio Loudspeaker

This work presents an audio beam loudspeaker that possesses the capability of emitting multiple audio beams into different directions at the same time. Ultrasonic loudspeakers applying parametric array technology are used to generate highly directional audible sound beams. The loudspeaker itself appears as a single device and can be mounted under the ceiling of a room in order to supply selected room segments with highly directional audio information such as music or speech. Due to the fact that parametric array technology requires very high ultrasound levels, high-power transducers have to be used. Because phased array technology applied on those transducers for beam steering does not work successfully, an alternative approach based on pre-steered segments is presented in this work.