It’s no strontium plasma lightsaber, but researchers from Spain, Finland and Canada have figured out a way to guide electric plasma in the air using ultrasonic fields. In other words, these sparks can be precisely directed to bend around obstacles, and even hit specific spots on a material, even if it isn’t conductive.
What makes this technique possible is the use of ultrasound because sound waves at these frequencies create air pressure that can be strong enough to levitate light objects. A spark heats up the air around it, thus causing warmer air to expand and reduce its density. Since electricity prefers to travel through lower density air, the spark begins to travel in that direction. The ultrasound pulses move this warmer, lower-density air and then guides the electricity.
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I am excited about the possibility of using very faint sparks for creating controlled tactile stimuli in the hand, perhaps creating the first contactless Braille system,” said Josu Irisarri, first author of the publication from the Public University of Navarre.
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