The creation pushes the boundaries of metamaterials – a new class of finely-engineered surfaces that perform nature-defying tasks. 

These materials have already shown remarkable results with light manipulation, allowing scientists to create a real-life version of Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, for example. 

But a research team from the Universities of Sussex and Bristol have now shown that they also work with sound waves, which could transform medical imaging and personal audio. 

Finely shaped sound fields are used in medical imaging and therapy as well as in a wide range of consumer products such as audio spotlights and ultrasonic haptics. The research published today (Monday 27 February 2017) in Nature Communications shows a simple and cheap way of creating these shaped sound waves using acoustic metamaterials.