The real part of the scattered pressure (in Pascals) from a point source placed 1 m from the opening of the ear canal, and in the same horizontal plane, showing variations when the source is (a-d) directly behind the ear, (e-h) directly in front of the ear, and (i-l) angled 15 degrees outward. The columns from left to right show increasing source frequency.
CREDIT
Leighton
While ultrasonic death rays are still a thing of fiction, there is growing evidence that exposure to ultrasonic waves may cause adverse health effects
New technologies for mobile devices may use ultrasonic sound waves for a variety of purposes, from charging your phone when you enter your room to collecting data on which advertisements you watch. Pest deterrents, dog controllers, some automatic sliding doors, public address voice alarms — and even a device marketed in the U.K. as a teenager repellant to keep kids from loitering outside storefronts — also emit ultrasound at different frequencies.
These devices have varying effects on different subsets of the population, and many of these are covert, or inaudible, so the public usually doesn’t know when they are exposed.
Regulation of these emerging technologies is in many ways “the wild west,” according to Timothy Leighton at the University of Southampton, who wrote a guide for moving forward in today’s new world of ultrasonic exposure. His work outlines a logical approach for advancing research on ultrasonics.
“I looked at all this stuff, and I said, ‘This is an amazing detective story,'” Leighton said. “I began to pull together a picture that, in fact, the public was being exposed.”
Leighton is an expert in ultrasonics and underwater acoustics, who analyzed the landscape of ultrasonic regulations. He discovered a string of regulations that were all based on insufficient data, but had been shared around the globe.
“It was extraordinary when you opened up this topic,” Leighton said. He found that many national safety guideline limits could be traced back to a handful of studies performed in the 1970s on “a small number of adult men, many of whom had experienced gunfire, some of whom had worked in the rock-n-roll hi-fi industry… So it was inadequate data on which to base standards.”
Emerging technologies are often marketed as harmless in terms of emitted ultrasound. Ultimately, Leighton found that these claims are not based on any scientific evidence.
He found a series of anecdotal complaints, ranging from nausea and dizziness to irritability and ringing ears, that were attributed to ultrasound exposure. However, there is little data in this field, partly because studies to test exposure on humans could be unethical. So, obtaining data from human subjects will require innovative approaches to research.
Leighton will describe his work uncovering the strange history and uncertain future of the use of ultrasonic sound waves during the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, to be held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He will also discuss why the 2017 incident in Cuba — when U.S. embassy workers experienced strange symptoms of hearing loss and confusion — was unlikely to have been caused by ultrasound.
“I think 70 years is too long to go with inappropriate guidelines,” Leighton said. “If it’s public exposure, you’re going to have children and newborns exposed as well, and we have no information whatsoever on how safe it is for them.”
Learn more: Ultrasonic attack is unlikely, but incidental exposure presents plenty of problems
The Latest on: Ultrasonic waves
via Google News
The Latest on: Ultrasonic waves
- Ultrasonic Proximity Switch Market Next Big Thing: Major Giants Rockwell Automation, Diamond Technologies, AutomationDirecton April 8, 2021 at 1:40 pm
These switches are non-contact sensors and they use ultrasonic waves through ultrasonic sensors to sense the proximity of objects. A proximity switch will be in its non-functional status when it is ...
- New Tech Deployed to Study Harmful Algal Bloomson April 8, 2021 at 8:54 am
The technology emits ultrasonic waves that create a sound layer in the top layer of the water, impacting the buoyancy of algae cells. These cells sink to the deeper layers of the water column, where ...
- A novel, hands-free ultrasound patch for continuous monitoring of quantitative Doppler in the carotid arteryon April 8, 2021 at 3:58 am
Quantitative Doppler ultrasound of the carotid artery has been proposed as an instantaneous surrogate for monitoring rapid changes in left ventricular output. Tracking immediate changes in the ...
- Artificial Intelligence Improves Breast Ultrasound Diagnosis Accuracyon April 5, 2021 at 12:04 pm
The first model only used 2D ultrasound intensity images as input, whereas the second model also included color flow Doppler images, which provide information on blood flow surrounding breast lesions.
- Ultrasound Surgical Device Market Size to Grow at a Remarkable Pace in the Coming Years: J AND J (ETHICON), MISONIX, MEDTRONIC, MOOG INCon April 4, 2021 at 9:27 pm
Ultrasonic surgery utilizes a novel and innovative ultrasonic device. This device utilizes ultrasound waves at a particular frequency range to perform cuts into dense tissues. Also used for diagnostic ...
- Going deep: Artificial intelligence improves accuracy of breast ultrasound diagnoseson April 4, 2021 at 9:00 pm
Ultrasound is widely used to detect breast cancer early, but misdiagnosis of benign lesions as malignant tumors sometimes leads to unnecessary biopsies. To tackle this problem, scientists conducted a ...
- Ultrasonic Sonar Detects Hidden Objectson April 2, 2021 at 4:00 am
most often sound waves. While a well-known use of this is sonar, ultrasonic sensors can also be put to use to make a radar-like system. This ultrasonic radar project is from [mircemk] who uses a ...
- Variability measurements provide additional value to shear wave elastography in the diagnosis of pancreatic canceron April 1, 2021 at 2:55 am
Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a technique to non-invasively ... by SWE using transabdominal ultrasound. We investigated a total of 106 patients (84 with NPP and 22 with PC) whose pancreatic elastic ...
- Ultrasonic Testing Market Size 2020 Global Industry Share, Growth, Trend, Demand, Top Players, Opportunities and Forecast to 2027on March 31, 2021 at 12:56 pm
utm_source=Marketwatchtm.com/&utm_medium=AK Ultrasonic testing is a kind of non-destructive testing n which ultrasonic pulse waves are transmitted into the subject to identify any kind of internal ...
via Bing News