Wireless technology has branched off into several different avenues over the past couple of decades, with wireless Internet, cellular data, and Bluetooth all providing similar means of information delivery. Thanks to work by Lisnr, a startup based in Cincinnati, we may soon be using a new option: sound.
Principally, delivering information via sound isn’t as bizarre as it—well, sounds. Things like dial-up have been transcoding digital information into perceptible sound and then back into information since the 90s, and the practice itself most likely goes back farther than that.
More recently, the process of pairing your phone with a Chromecast device is also reliant on data-over-sound.
The key difference between dial-up and Lisnr’s approach is that, unlike the majority of past instances of information over sound, information will be transmitted over the air rather than through a hardwired connection.
This approach would make things like scanning a card at a restaurant or a pass at a venue much more efficient, as people wouldn’t have to worry about their phones failing to use properly the Bluetooth NFD feature. Similarly, the process would likely be as quick as using Bluetooth, and it might even be more ubiquitous.
Transmitting data via sound would be a relatively cost-effective solution as well, since the bulk of card readers that can handle Bluetooth also come equipped with external microphones that would allow for audio reception if given a minor set of tweaks. This means that the average business wouldn’t have to spend thousands of dollars upgrading their equipment just to meet an upcoming trend.
Two large concerns come to mind when considering this technology, the first of which is the security aspect. It’s easy to understand why people might be skeptical about sending information—encrypted or otherwise—across radio waves, though preliminary assessments concluded that transmitting data over sound is as secure as (if not more so than) using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
As with any emerging technology, we’ll have to see how quickly the world can respond and adapt to its nuances.
The other concern is that data-over-sound transmissions will be too simple to differentiate between different devices, but Google’s Chromecast pairing is definitive proof that this won’t be an issue – data transmission via audio has already been proven to be more accurate than Bluetooth recognition.
Audio data transmission is still a ways off, but don’t be too surprised if you find yourself paying for your meal with radio waves instead of Bluetooth in the not-too-distant future.
This story was first published in January, 2018.
Jack Lloyd has a BA in Creative Writing from Forest Grove's Pacific University; he spends his writing days using his degree to pursue semicolons, freelance writing and editing, oxford commas, and enough coffee to kill a bear. His infatuation with rain is matched only by his dry sense of humor.
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