Lego-Like Wall Produces Acoustic Holograms

I know of a startup in Berlin that was working on the ability to focus sound at any given point in the room with minimal leakage. The application allowed three people in three parts of the room to listen to completely different music without any interference. I thought it was uber cool! Now with this innovation, this just got even cooler. I wonder when these technologies will become affordable for the masses.

> “It’s basically like putting a mask in front of a speaker,” said Cummer. “It makes it seem like the sound is coming from a more complicated source than it is.”

> “We’re currently in the exploration phase, trying to determine where this technology would be useful,” said Xie.

I'd like to try that between my face and a guitar amp.

I always use a 4-speaker 4x12 cabinet even for practice just because the sound is more complex; the interference patterns change subtly as your head moves. That keeps the tone fresh if you're at it for several hours.

Imagine a "hologram grille" on a simple little combo amp with a 10" speaker. Maybe it could affect the tone in cool ways.

"They are also shopping the idea around to industries that work in the kilohertz range, such as aerial sensing and imaging technologies"

How would this work?