The scientists say their technique may inform the design of future communications technologies. New metamaterials could be made to manipulate not just sound waves but potentially electromagnetic waves too.

This sounds like the sound curtain or cone of silence that you read in science fiction stories. I’m sure that this would be great for private conversations at noisy party’s and other secret conversations.

If you think about it, an existing way of emitting directed pulses are vortex rings

This is a very interesting concept. I just watched the movie dune, they had a no sound barrier that was kind of cool.