Tractor beams have hit the big time. A newly constructed device generates a beam of concentrated sound that, for the first time, exerts a continuous, perceptible tug on objects large enough to see.

Researchers recently created an acoustic hologram, or a 3D sound field projected onto a 2D space, which can be used as acoustic tweezers, cages and twisters that manipulate objects as they levitate in ...

Accurate yet imaginative audio is part of what creates truly immersive film and TV. Dialogue, music, and sound effects work synergistically to legitimize a sense of filmic reality, set mood, and ...

An artist's rendering shows an acoustic hologram trapping a particle over a levitation device. Courtesy Asier Marzo, Bruce Drinkwater and Sriram Subramanian It's no Mattel hoverboard. But a device ...

Researchers have come up with a new and improved way to levitate objects using sound waves alone, an impressive feat of mixed-reality technology that could pave the way for some seriously futuristic ...

If you've ever wanted to play at being a Foley artist for your own audio recordings, here's a list of common household objects that can create tricky but believable sound effects. Photo by M. Keefe.

Musical lodestar, creative anomaly: Jacques Auberger doesn’t look like anyone you’ve ever met. It’s not so much his sartorial bent—which is only moderately esoteric—as the hair on his head. If a ...

Smithsonian Institution, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, 600 Maryland Ave., S.W., Suite 2001, Washington ...