Disney invents private speaker technology

Disney has unveiled a new technology that turns your fingertip into a speaker.

The Ishin-Den-Shin technology uses a normal microphone to record audio. It then turns it into an inaudible signal. That signal is transmitted through touch to the intended recipient by touching their earlobe. According to Disney, the technology works by forming an organic speaker when the earlobe is touched. At that point, the signal become audible. However, it is only just loud enough for the person whose ear is being touched to hear. The sound can be passed from person to person. In other words, a recipient could touch a third person’s earlobe and they too would hear the message. The technology was developed at Disney Research in Pittsburgh. It is unclear what the intention behind the technology is. “When touching another person’s ear, this modulated electrostatic field creates a very small vibration of the earlobe,” Disney Research says on its website. "As a result, both the finger and the ear together form a speaker, that makes the signal audible for the person touched. “The inaudible signal can be transmitted from body to body, using any sort of physical contact.” Ishin-Den-Shin is a Japanese mantra that translates as: “What the mind thinks, the heart transmits”.