In certain medical applications, transmitting an ultrasound beam through the skin to manipulate a solid object within the human body would be beneficial. Such applications include, for example, controlling an ingestible camera or expelling a kidney stone. In this paper, ultrasound beams of specific shapes were designed by numerical modeling and produced using a phased array. These beams were shown to levitate and electronically steer solid objects (3-mm-diameter glass spheres), along preprogrammed paths, in a water bath, and in the urinary bladders of live pigs. Deviation from the intended path was on average <10%. No injury was found on the bladder wall or intervening tissue.

在某些医疗应用中，通过皮肤发射超声波束以操纵人体中的固体物体将是有益的。这样的应用包括，例如，控制可摄取的照相机或排出肾结石。在本文中，通过数值建模设计了特定形状的超声波束，并使用相控阵产生了超声波束。这些光束显示出可以沿预定路径，在水浴中以及在生猪的膀胱中悬浮并以电子方式操纵固体物体（直径3毫米的玻璃球）。与预期路径的偏差平均<10％。在膀胱壁或介入组织上未发现损伤。