{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,17]],"date-time":"2026-03-17T07:58:55Z","timestamp":1773734335641,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]],"date-time":"2024-02-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1708646400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["ACM Trans. Sen. Netw."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Acoustic communication has become a research focus without requiring extra hardware and facilitates numerous near-field applications such as mobile payment. To communicate, existing researchers use either an audible frequency band or an inaudible one. The former gains a high throughput but endures being audible, which can be annoying to users. The latter, although inaudible, falls short in throughput due to the available (near) ultrasonic bandwidth. In this article, we achieve both high speed and inaudibility for acoustic communication by utilizing the nonlinearity effect on microphones. We theoretically prove the maximum throughput of inaudible acoustic communication by modulating an audible signal onto an ultrasonic band. Then, we design and implement<jats:monospace>UltraComm<\/jats:monospace>, which utilizes a specially designed OFDM scheme. The scheme takes into account the characteristics of the nonlinear speaker-to-microphone channel, aiming to mitigate the effects of signal distortion. We evaluate<jats:monospace>UltraComm<\/jats:monospace>on different mobile devices and achieve throughput as high as 16.24 kbps.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3631120","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,16]],"date-time":"2024-01-16T12:01:27Z","timestamp":1705406487000},"page":"1-22","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Ultrasound Communication Using the Nonlinearity Effect of Microphone Circuits in Smart Devices"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8003-0669","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guoming","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shandong University, Qingdao, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1101-0007","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaoyu","family":"Ji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zhejiang University, Hanzhou, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1368-8839","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xinyan","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Ningbo University, Ningbo, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6535-2221","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Donglian","family":"Qi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zhejiang University, Hanzhou, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5043-9148","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wenyuan","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zhejiang University, Hanzhou, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","unstructured":"Avisoft Bioacoustics. 2017. Ultrasonic Dynamic Speaker Vifa. http:\/\/www.avisoft.com\/usg\/vifa.htm"},{"issue":"4","key":"e_1_3_1_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"262","DOI":"10.1109\/TEMC.1980.303864","article-title":"Macromodel predictions for EMI in bipolar operational amplifiers","author":"Chen Gordon K. C.","year":"1980","unstructured":"Gordon K. C. Chen and James J. Whalen. 1980. Macromodel predictions for EMI in bipolar operational amplifiers. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility4 (1980), 262\u2013265.","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility"},{"issue":"4","key":"e_1_3_1_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"495","DOI":"10.1109\/TEMC.2002.804766","article-title":"A new nonlinear model of EMI-induced distortion phenomena in feedback CMOS operational amplifiers","volume":"44","author":"Fiori Franco","year":"2002","unstructured":"Franco Fiori. 2002. A new nonlinear model of EMI-induced distortion phenomena in feedback CMOS operational amplifiers. IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility 44, 4 (2002), 495\u2013502.","journal-title":"IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/81.989173"},{"issue":"3","key":"e_1_3_1_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"530","DOI":"10.1147\/sj.393.0530","article-title":"Things that talk: Using sound for device-to-device and device-to-human communication","volume":"39","author":"Gerasimov Vadim","year":"2000","unstructured":"Vadim Gerasimov and Walter Bender. 2000. Things that talk: Using sound for device-to-device and device-to-human communication. IBM Systems Journal 39, 3.4 (2000), 530\u2013546.","journal-title":"IBM Systems Journal"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/15.68258"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_8_2","unstructured":"Mark F. Hamilton Blackstock and David T. 1998. Nonlinear acoustics. Academic press San Diego."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_9_2","article-title":"On covert acoustical mesh networks in air","author":"Hanspach Michael","year":"2014","unstructured":"Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz. 2014. On covert acoustical mesh networks in air. arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.1213 (2014).","journal-title":"arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.1213"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1424","DOI":"10.1109\/IMTC.2010.5488066","volume-title":"Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC \u201910)","author":"Hosman Thomas","year":"2010","unstructured":"Thomas Hosman, Mark Yeary, John K Antonio, and Brent Hobbs. 2010. Multi-tone FSK for ultrasonic communication. In Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC \u201910). IEEE, 1424\u20131429."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Soonwon Ka Tae Hyun Kim Jae Yeol Ha Sun Hong Lim Su Cheol Shin Jun Won Choi Chulyoung Kwak and Sunghyun Choi. 2016. Near-ultrasound communication for TV\u2019s 2nd screen services. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom) ACM 42\u201354.","DOI":"10.1145\/2973750.2973774"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_12_2","first-page":"145","volume-title":"Symposium on IEEE Security and Privacy","author":"Kune Denis Foo","year":"2013","unstructured":"Denis Foo Kune, John Backes, Shane S. Clark, Daniel Kramer, Matthew Reynolds, Kevin Fu, Yongdae Kim, and Wenyuan Xu. 2013. Ghost talk: Mitigating EMI signal injection attacks against analog sensors. In Symposium on IEEE Security and Privacy. 145\u2013159."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_13_2","first-page":"2407","volume-title":"Proceedings of IEEE Infocom","author":"Lee Hyewon","year":"2015","unstructured":"Hyewon Lee, Tae Hyun Kim, Jun Won Choi, and Sunghyun Choi. 2015. Chirp signal-based aerial acoustic communication for smart devices. In Proceedings of IEEE Infocom. 2407\u20132415."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_14_2","first-page":"219","volume-title":"2001 IEEE Workshop on the Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics","author":"Lopes Cristina Videira","year":"2001","unstructured":"Cristina Videira Lopes and Pedro M. Q. Aguiar. 2001. Aerial acoustic communications. In 2001 IEEE Workshop on the Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics. IEEE, 219\u2013222."},{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_3_1_15_2","first-page":"2","article-title":"Acoustic communication system using mobile terminal microphones","volume":"8","author":"Matsuoka Hosei","year":"2006","unstructured":"Hosei Matsuoka, Yusuke Nakashima, and Takeshi Yoshimura. 2006. Acoustic communication system using mobile terminal microphones. NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal 8, 2 (2006), 2\u201312.","journal-title":"NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_16_2","first-page":"63","volume-title":"Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM CCR","volume":"43","author":"Nandakumar Rajalakshmi","year":"2013","unstructured":"Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Krishna Kant Chintalapudi, Venkat Padmanabhan, and Ramarathnam Venkatesan. 2013. Dhwani: Secure peer-to-peer acoustic NFC. In Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM CCR, Vol. 43. 63\u201374."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2018.2848099"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_18_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1687-1499-2011-2"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_19_2","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Proceedings of ACM SenSys","author":"Peng Chunyi","year":"2007","unstructured":"Chunyi Peng, Guobin Shen, Yongguang Zhang, Yanlin Li, and Kun Tan. 2007. Beepbeep: A high accuracy acoustic ranging system using cots mobile devices. In Proceedings of ACM SenSys. 1\u201314."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_20_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3081333.3081366"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_21_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TNET.2016.2616724"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_22_2","unstructured":"Jinci Technologies. 2017. Open structure product review. http:\/\/www.jinci.cn\/en\/goods\/112.html"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_23_2","unstructured":"Keysight Technologies. 2024. N5172B EXG X-Series RF Vector Signal Generator 9 kHz to 6 GHz. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.keysight.com\/en\/pdx-x201910-pn-N5172B"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_24_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wen-Kung Tseng. 2015. A directional audible sound system using ultrasonic transducers. International Journal of Advanced Research in Artificial Intelligence 4 9 (2015) 11\u201316.","DOI":"10.14569\/IJARAI.2015.040903"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_25_2","volume-title":"Distortion Analysis of Analog Integrated Circuits","author":"Wambacq Piet","year":"2013","unstructured":"Piet Wambacq and Willy Sansen. 2013. Distortion Analysis of Analog Integrated Circuits. Vol. 451. Springer Science & Business Media."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_26_2","first-page":"29","volume-title":"Proceedings of ACM MobiCom","author":"Wang Qian","year":"2016","unstructured":"Qian Wang, Kui Ren, Man Zhou, Tao Lei, Dimitrios Koutsonikolas, and Lu Su. 2016. Messages behind the sound: Real-time hidden acoustic signal capture with smartphones. In Proceedings of ACM MobiCom. 29\u201341."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_27_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen Yan Guoming Zhang Xiaoyu Ji Tianchen Zhang Taimin Zhang and Wenyuan Xu. 2019. The feasibility of injecting inaudible voice commands to voice assistants. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing 18 3 (2019) 1108\u20131124.","DOI":"10.1109\/TDSC.2019.2906165"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_28_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/LSP.2009.2032751"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_29_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2014.2297998"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3133956.3134052"}],"container-title":["ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3631120","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3631120","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T16:35:51Z","timestamp":1750178151000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3631120"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]]},"references-count":29,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,31]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3631120"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3631120","relation":{},"ISSN":["1550-4859","1550-4867"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1550-4859","type":"print"},{"value":"1550-4867","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2022-06-28","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2023-10-05","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2024-02-23","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}