Metz. Do you know how this Messin almost beat NASA?

Before exercising his talents in the TDF tower of the Metz Technopole, Patrice Bourcet worked in Meudon in the field of acoustics. To study the future acoustic properties of the hall of the Opéra Bastille or the Palais des Congrès in Paris, “we built a model at 1/10th or 1/20th and we put the wavelength of the sound frequencies into the ladder. A pure sound of 1,000 Hz has a wavelength of 34 cm, therefore 3.4 cm at 1/10: it is 10,000 Hz,” explains the engineer. “The smaller the wavelength, the higher the frequency. If we multiply the frequencies by ten, we quickly obtain ultrasound”

His first job was therefore to restart “an ionophone, or ultrasound transmitter, invented by Siegried Klein in 1952 to observe on a scale the defects in the room (echoes for example) and to best equip the room with absorbent materials”.

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If we capture head movements, “we can modify the signals from each ear to take the movement into account. A stronger and earlier signal to the left ear and a weaker and later signal to the right ear if you turn your head to the right and vice versa. This “puts the orchestra back in front of you,” says the inventor. But when he wanted to file the patent, he discovered that NASA had just done it! “I was disappointed! » But proud to have had the same idea as the prestigious and powerful federal agency of the American space program.

Unpatented ideas, Patrice Bourcet had plenty of others. There was this solution to charge your cell phone at home with tap water using pressure “to turn a bicycle dynamo which provides enough electrical energy”. This mini-hydraulic power plant exists today, it is Hydrobee.

There was also the idea of ​​price displays in supermarkets linked to a central computer to change prices remotely. Patrice Bourcet imagined it 25 years ago and called it “Optiquet”! “Filing a patent costs between €2,000 and €3,000, I didn’t do it” Since then, someone has officially invented and made it…

Patrice Bourcet has filed eight patents. We have already told you about radio frequency technology (RL of 09/24/24). Here is his concept of hidden sound in audio: “When you take a shower and the phone rings, the sound of the shower masks the sound of the phone” This phenomenon also takes place within a sound itself where each frequency ( or tone) which composes it can generate a masking effect on less intense neighboring frequencies as when one is blinded by the headlights of a car” There is therefore “room to remove these parts of sound and replace them with something else! » This is where Patrice Bourcet puts his signal, “a sort of barcode that we cannot hear, hidden”. To unmask it, you need a decoder. The patent was sold to the company Audemat specializing in FM testing and measurements and serves as a marker.

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