Controlling the Spatiotemporal Response of Transient Reverberating Sound

Sound propagating inside a room is multiply scattered by the boundaries and other obstacles, forming complex reverberating sound field (RSF). Such RSFs are not only spatially disordered but also temporally scrambled. Although spatial control of steady-state at single frequencies successfully achieved extending idea wavefront shaping to acoustics, time-coherent polychromatic has remained out reach. Here, we report spatiotemporal acoustic wavefield adaptively reshaping impulse responses arbitrary positions different instants in using modulators---a reconfigurable programmable membrane-type metasurface capable encoding desirable phase factors over finite bandwidth. We further analyze mechanism performance with simple numerical model derived from multiple scattering time domain. Our results expand capabilities RSF temporal domain demonstrate possibilities for transient engineering communication, imaging, holography.