Apparatus is disclosed for steering a directional audio beam that is
self-demodulated from an ultrasound carrier. The apparatus includes means
for modulating a carrier signal with an audio signal and means for
adjusting the amplitude and phase of at least one of the audio signal
and/or the carrier signal to steer the audio beam to a desired direction.
The apparatus also includes means for generating an ultrasound beam in
the desired direction driven by the modulated carrier signal. The
apparatus may include means for weighting the audio and/or carrier signal
by a zeroth order Bessel function to synthesize a Bessel distribution
source. A corresponding method for steering a directional audio beam is
also disclosed. A harmonic generator may be used to generate harmonics of
low frequencies in the audio signal. The harmonics may provide (upon
demodulation) a psycho-acoustic impression of improved perception of low
frequencies. Further, a modulated ultrasonic signal or an unmodulated
audio signal may be band-passed into two or more different band-limited
signals. The band-limited signals may be amplified and transmitted by
ultrasonic transducers having mechanical resonance frequencies
substantially equal to a characteristic frequency of the band-limited
signals. Ultrasonic processing of the audio signal may include square
root methods without generating large numbers of harmonics.