The NYTimes has an article about a new sound technology that can direct a \”column of sound\” at a target.

Woody Norris aims the silvery plate at his quarry. A burly brunette 200 feet away stops dead in her tracks and peers around, befuddled. She has walked straight into the noise of a Brazilian rain forest — then out again. Even in her shopping reverie, here among the haircutters and storefront tax-preparers and dubious Middle Eastern bistros, her senses inform her that she has just stepped through a discrete column of sound, a sharply demarcated beam of unexpected sound. \’\’Look at that,\’\’ Norris mutters, chuckling as the lady turns around. \’\’She doesn\’t know what hit her.\’\’

Sounds kind of cool, but it\’s gonna suck when the direct marketers get ahold of it. We\’re gonna be assaulted with audio spam everywhere we go.
[ From Boing Boing ]