Is it possible to make an ultrasound carrier as mentioned in this patent?

Is it possible to make an ultrasound carrier as mentioned in this patent?

Here is the link to patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6631196B1/en

It claims to create an ultrasound carrier which uses non-linearities of the middle ear and inner ear to make it audible.

Is something like this possible in Audacity? How can I do it?

Yes, that’s possible with Audacity, but first you will need:

  1. a D/A converter that works at ultrasound frequencies,
  2. an ultrasound amplifier
  3. an ultrasound transducer
  4. a coupling capacitor that is transparent to ultrasound frequencies
    (see items 106, 108, 110, 112, 114 in the diagrams)

Before you go to the time and expense of trying to source those components, please note that an invention does not have to work to be granted a patent. In this case, it probably doesn’t work, or doesn’t work very well. If it did work well, then Apple or some other big corporation would almost certainly be exploiting it by now.

No, instead of buying all those things, I was thinking of just using a smartphone or hi-res audio player to try it with hi-res earphones, how can I use Audacity to create an ultrasound carrier?

The patent has been cited by a number of big companies, like:

Advanced Hearing Technology, Inc.
Siemens Audiologische Technik Gmbh
Resound Corporation
Hearing Innovations Incorporated
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ab
Turtle Beach Corporation
Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc

and few universities.

The patent mentions using ultrasound of 200kHz. Audio electronics & earphones will only reach ~20kHz.
Special electronics & transducers are required for ultrasound.

Snake leash - Patent granted :open_mouth: