The force awakens: tractor beam becomes a reality

[jimmy olsen]

I've always identified the tractor beam more with Star Trek, then Star Wars.


Pics and video within.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/27/the-force-awakens-tractor-beam-becomes-a-reality

The force awakens: tractor beam becomes a reality

Science fiction becomes fact as scientists develop an acoustic hologram which can hold and move objects, but its uses will be more surgical than Star Wars

Scientists move objects with 'tractor beam' technology

Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Tuesday 27 October 2015 16.00 GMT 

A sonic tractor beam that can grab tiny objects and move them around has been created by scientists in Spain.


They used the same technology to lift and spin objects in the air using only the forces produced by a field of ultrasonic waves.


Though not much use for capturing vessels in the vacuum of space, the team at the Public University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain, hope the technique can be used to operate microsurgical instruments inside patients' bodies, and direct drugs to damaged tissues.


Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers describe how they used ultrasound to move tiny polystyrene beads measuring only 3mm across and weighing a fraction of a gram.

"We can move bigger and heavier objects than we have done, but the main application is going smaller to manipulate things inside the human body," said Asier Marzo, who worked on the project.


The technology works by using an array of flat speakers to produce acoustic holograms. Just as visual holograms are produced in 3D from interfering light waves, so acoustic holograms are made by interfering sound waves. When the peaks of two waves meet, they produce a greater amplitude; when a peak meets a trough they cancel out.


Marzo's team showed that by carefully adjusting the sound waves, they could create moving acoustic holograms that worked like 3D cages, tweezers or rotating spirals that could lift, grab, spin and nudge tiny particles around.


The sonic tractor beam uses a 3D hologram with the shape of a cage or bottle in which the object to be moved is captured. The walls of the cage are created by high pressure ultrasound waves, while inside the cage, the pressure is close to zero.

"When the particle is surrounded by high pressure, it gets trapped there. And we can update the hologram in real time to move the cage towards us, and the particle moves with the trap," said Marzo.


Because sound waves can travel through body tissues, the scientists see medical applications as a priority for the technology. "It could be used to manipulate kidney stones, clots, or microsurgical instruments that you control from outside, without having to make any incisions in the patient," said Marzo. "Or you could hold a drug wherever you wanted to inside a patient, so it doesn't go anywhere else in the body."


The technology allows for what the scientists call "containerless transportation", which could find uses in applications where material is dangerous to handle, or at risk of being contaminated by people or machinery.

[MadImmortalMan]

I've always identified the tractor beam more with Star Trek, then Star Wars.

[jimmy olsen]

 I know it's an important plot point in New Hope, but it gets used a hell of a lot in Next Generation and Voyager, so when I hear the words I think of Star Trek.

[garbon]

I agree with you, Tim.

[Caliga]

I am much more of a Trek guy myself, Tim, but I disagree with you here.  Tractor beams are central to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, dude.

[viper37]

I am much more of a Trek guy myself, Tim, but I disagree with you here.  Tractor beams are central to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, dude.

they're central to the plot of many Star Trek episodes

[The Brain]

As usual the Daily Mail got it right: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2644099/Star-Trek-edges-closer-reality-Tractor-beam-moves-object-using-power-ultrasound.html

[crazy canuck]

I am much more of a Trek guy myself, Tim, but I disagree with you here.  Tractor beams are central to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, dude.

Sure, but it is commonplace in the Trek universe.

[lustindarkness]

My favorite tractor beam is the Pixar short of the alien abducting the sleeping guy. 

[Grey Fox]

Tim, and others are, is right. Tractor beams are more Trek than Wars.

[Savonarola]

My favorite tractor beam is the Pixar short of the alien abducting the sleeping guy. 

Lifted  That is a classic

[Maximus]

Sonic based, so not going to work well outside an atmosphere.

[Caliga]

I am much more of a Trek guy myself, Tim, but I disagree with you here.  Tractor beams are central to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, dude.

Sure, but it is commonplace in the Trek universe.

If you surveyed a bunch of people who aren't huge dorks where they've heard of tractor beams, I'm sure you'd hear 'Star Wars' way more often.

[Malthus]

I am much more of a Trek guy myself, Tim, but I disagree with you here.  Tractor beams are central to the plot of the first Star Wars movie, dude.

Sure, but it is commonplace in the Trek universe.

If you surveyed a bunch of people who aren't huge dorks where they've heard of tractor beams, I'm sure you'd hear 'Star Wars' way more often.

Of course, only huge dorks would be debating this question ... 

[Caliga]

Good point.