Rollercoaster Cuts Children's Salons

• Provide personalized entertainment for children.
• Amuse and distract them from an otherwise unpleasant experience.

The "dreaded" haircut can be a very unpleasant experience for children, as well as an arduous task for parents. Children have a difficult time sitting still, and parents often have to provide constant distraction throughout the haircut process to prevent them from jumping out of the barber's chair, or throwing a tantrum. Rollercoaster Cuts salons, created by Six Flags, have been designed to make the haircut a pleasant experience for children to look forward to, while relieving stress from their parents. Children can watch TV or play video games as they receive their haircut, and an Audio Spotlight system at each chair completes the immersive audio/video experience. Each Audio Spotlight system provides sound only to the child in the seat, so there is no distracting interference between chairs, and parents can relax in peace and quiet as their children enjoy their new "welcomed" haircut.

Vanderbilt Medical Center

• Create a unique, soothing atmosphere for patients.
• Reduce unwanted noise during crucial medical treatments.

Responding to an increasing demand for chemotherapy services, The Vanderbilt Medical Center added a new clinic consisting of nearly 100 beds to their cancer center, with a unique new approach to the patient experience. Planning and development for the clinic occurred over two years, allowing the careful selection of room colors, furniture, and entertainment for patients, including flat screen televisions in each room. This desirable addition also created the problem of noise bleeding throughout the center, distracting staff and troubling patients, whom they were trying to put at ease. After careful consideration, Vanderbilt found the Audio Spotlight system to be the best solution for providing sound to their patients, without the noise problems associated with traditional loudspeakers, or other "directional" audio systems. The Audio Spotlight systems have been praised by patients and staff alike, and Vanderbilt plans on continuing to use them as they expand their facilities.

High Street Men's Salon

• Provide individual audio for each client.
• Maintain a peaceful, professional atmosphere.

High Street Men's Grooming Centre, a Boston hair salon catering exclusively to men, added a personalized video and "private" audio experience to the classic shampoo and a haircut in its Newbury Street facility. Updating the old barber chair, High Street installed semi-private grooming stations, each equipped with an individually controlled flat screen television and an Audio Spotlight®sound system, from Holosonic Research Labs, which beams audio exclusively to individual customers. Each customer, watching and listening to their own program in their chair, hears only their show without distracting TV sound from the adjoining chair. Because sound is localized to only the clients, the overall environment stays quiet, peaceful, and professional.

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Automotive Sound

• Provide individual audio for each passenger.
• Driver instructions and alerts heard by driver alone.
• Hands-free phone without earpiece.

Anyone with children knows how valuable peace and quiet can be, particularly on long car rides. With Audio Spotlight technology, each person in a vehicle can choose to listen to their own sound beamed directly to them. The driver can have the news, the passenger can have classical, and the kids in the back seat can hear their DVD, rock and roll, or video game sound all on their own, and without headphones.

Holosonics is working to develop this technology for market release. Prototype vehicles have already been created and displayed by DaimlerChrysler, GM, Ford, and others, demonstrating the technology's promise. The GM vehicle, called "Juno," is being exhibited at Walt Disney's Epcot Center, as a demonstration of the world's newest technological wonders.

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Art Using Audio Spotlight Technology

• Create a truly unique experience.
• Push the limits of art and technology.

Unlike any artwork preceding it, British artist Cerith Wyn Evans' "A=P=P=A=R=I=T=I=O=N" created a whirlwind of changing sounds using giant rotating mobiles with circular mirror-like devices equipped with directional audio technology from Holosonic Research Labs. The Audio Spotlight Systems delivered targeted sound to a specific location while eliminating ambient noise, and were used in Evans' piece to project music, sound effects and speech in every direction while moving across the room in an unpredictable manner. The artist's work was displayed at Yokohama Triennale 2008, the international triennial of contemporary art in Yokohama, Japan.

View a video of the installation.

Read the press release.