Echocast is an application which lets you send information wirelessly over high frequency sound. Data is encoded in a sound file which can be played by any common speaker and then decoded by any common microphone. Echocast uses frequencies above the human hearing range, so the transfer is silent. The application does not need any additional hardware - it works with the speakers and microphone that come with any laptop or smartphone.
Echocast doesn't use Bluetooth, WiFi, or any device specific protocols like Android's NFC. As a result, Echocast can be used on almost any electronic device. This weekend, I built a proof of concept which uses a laptop to play sound files that transmit a character string to an Android smartphone. The transfer is very secure - the microphone and speaker need to be in close proximity.
Because Echocast uses only needs commonly available and inexpensive hardware, it can be used in buildings and stores to send notifications and ads to customers without expensive indoor wireless installations. Also, because Echocast uses high frequencies, you can encode information in existing songs. For instance, you can use Echocast to embed the lyrics of a song in the audio of the song itself - while the song is playing, your smartphone can decode the lyrics straight from the microphone without connecting to the Internet.
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