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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 2000 The whispering molecules IF I were to blindfold you and transport you to some unknown destination you would immediately be able to make a good guess at the nature of the location from the sounds you could hear. Even if it were very quiet you would still be able to make a good guess: that light breeze on your skin, the smell of flowers, and that undefinable sense of space, or the lack of a breeze and the smell of polish, carpets and people are all instant giveaways. In contrast, if I stood you at the sweet spot of a sound-proof chamber you would have no idea where you were and might well lose your balance and fall over. Why? Our senses are accustomed to ambient conditions that feed us with myriad invisible reference signals. Probably none is subtler than the billions of air molecules that hit the skin after being deflected off the floor, roof, ceiling and objects in a room, or from trees and plants in a forest. They create a feeling of space that is palpable, and if artificially removed from our environment, would leave us devoid of vital information. So it turns out that if you are totally blind you still receive spatial information beyond the echoes of voices, footsteps and traffic from this naturally occurring and invisible bombardment of reflected and deflected molecules. It is only with a good snowfall, or a very dense fog, that this invisible and invaluable source of reference data disappears, and our world feels and sounds strangely flat and featureless. This phenomenon may well be a component of that sixth sense we all seem to possess, when we can detect the presence of another person without seeing or hearing him directly, but by unconsciously feeling him displace a volume of air, or dampen the reflective components of our highly turbulent atmosphere. Of course radar and sonar are highly focused realisations of the same principal that use dedicated beams of energy to ping a target, but they are not generally all-pervasive. With our society now bathed in electromagnetic energy (radio waves) from an increasing number of devices - mobile phones, computers, radios, TVs, personal stereos, VCRs, video cameras, cars, vacuum cleaners, electric drills, washing machines, dishwashers, microwave ovens and more - there is a new opportunity for an extension to our sensory perception. Suppose for a moment we could hear, see or feel this ubiquitous field of electromagnetic radiation. In an instant we would have built in proximity detector, and in essence a route to a new means of sensing and communication. In the latest 007 movie, James Bond dons a pair of spectacles to reveal the weapons of his enemies concealed under their clothing, and a good deal more. With infrared and X-ray detectors this is possible today, but it involves rather more technology than just a pair of spectacles. So far no one has engineered a visible or acoustic version of the same device, but in principal it can be done. Imagine being blind and receiving a message from the Global Positioning unit in a parked car, or a vending machine that tells you where you are to within a few centimetres. Or being deaf, with a visible indication of the car approaching from behind - or, indeed, fully able, but lost on a foggy night with snow in the streets. Just feel the Force. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
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