Reconfigurable Origami-Inspired Metamaterials for Controllable Sound Manipulation

Origami has been widely used in designing mechanical metamaterials, providing various intriguing properties and functionalities that could lead to disruptive engineering applications for mechanical waves. Here the authors extend the concept of origami to acoustic metamaterial design, for manipulating sound waves. They design and fabricate a reconfigurable, origami-inspired acoustic metamaterial with tunable functionalities that include acoustic focusing, splitting, localization, and one-way transmission. Their approach opens an avenue to practical applications based on the control of sound.