AcousTools: A 'Full-Stack', Python-Based, Acoustic Holography Library

TL;DR

AcousTools is a comprehensive Python library that provides a full-stack solution for acoustic holography, enabling researchers to design, simulate, and control mid-air ultrasound applications from setup to physical implementation.

Contribution

It introduces AcousTools, the first complete software framework supporting all stages of acoustic holography in a user-friendly Python package.

Findings

Supports all steps from setup to hardware control

Enables simulation and analysis of acoustic fields

Aims to become the standard tool in the field

Abstract

Acoustic Holography is an emerging field where mid-air ultrasound is controlled and manipulated for novel and exciting applications. These range from mid-air haptics, volumetric displays, contactless fabrication, and even chemical and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. To develop these applications, a software framework to predict acoustic behaviour and simulating resulting effects, such as applied forces or scattering patterns is desirable. There have been various software libraries and platforms that attempt to fill this role, but there is yet to be a single piece of software that acts as a 'full-stack' solution. We define this full-stack as the process from abstraction to physicalisation starting with setup, modelling acoustic propagation, transducer phase retrieval, sound field analysis, and control of the acoustic holographic hardware itself. Existing methods fail to fulfil one or more of these categories. To address this, we present AcousTools, a Python-based acoustic holography library, designed to support the full suite of acoustic holographic applications and we show AcousTools's ability to meet each step of the full-stack's requirements. AcousTools has the potential to become the standard code library for acoustic holography, with the uniquely complete suite of features wrapped in a language that is known to be easy to use, AcousTools will increase the ability for researchers to develop novel applications as well as accurately review other's work. The full-stack, aside from software, will also be useful for researchers - providing a way to view and compare methodologies by understanding where they fit into the stack.