The goal of our project is to create a novel maze manoeuvring game in which the object (a styrofoam ball) to move through the obstacles is levitating. We are making use of the principle of acoustic levitation which is the use of ultrasonic sound waves to make small objects levitate! The sound waves we are using in our project is of frequency 40kHz, which exceeds our audible range (20Hz to 20kHz). Our acoustic levitation game allows the player to manoeuvre the object in 4 directions (left, right, front, back) through the maze. This movement is controlled by changing the frequency of the ultrasonic waves emitted.
While there is not much practical use for our project, the same principles can be applied in other fields as future development. For instance, papers have reported that there is potential for acoustic levitation in the medical field, specifically for drug delivery. Acoustic tweezers could be constructed using the same principles as our project. Soundwaves can also be used for haptic feedback which is the use of advanced vibration patterns and waveforms to convey information to a user or operator.