Disney Research Invents Microphone That Transmits Sound through Your Fingertips

If you've ever wanted to send someone a secret message simply by touching their ear, Disney Research has come up with a way to do just that.

This new invention - called the Isihin-Denshin - takes the sounds that are spoken into a microphone and transforms it into a low current inaudible signal that is then sent back into the speaker's body. And this is where it gets really sci-fi - when the person who spoke into the microphone touches another person's ear that inaudible signal vibrates in the person's earlobe, recreating sound.

If this all sounds like something straight out of some science fiction movie, you're not far off the mark. The microphone's inventor, Ivan Poupyrev from Disney Research in Pittsburgh, explained the device like this in an interview with New Scientist:

If you remember the beginning of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, when the Vogons arrive to blow up the Earth, they turn every object on Earth into a perfect hi-fi PA system that is used to announce that the Earth is going to be destroyed. Ishin-Denshin is something along those lines, minus destruction of the Earth.

And in case you were wondering where the device's name comes from, "Ishin-Dinshin" is a Japanese term that loosely translates into "telepathy."

As cool as the Ishin-Dinshin sounds, there aren't any immediate plans for use at the Disney Parks.

Story by Tracy C., Source