Acoustic waves in the form of ultrasound are used for sensing and detection, for instance as distance sensors in a car or for medical imaging. However, ultrasound can also exert forces and interact with materials. Examples include ultrasonic cleaning baths, ultrasonic welding setups, as well as devices to destroy kidney stones and ablate biological tissue. The latter are important applications in medicine. Ultrasound can also exert small forces to move particulate matter and even living cells. The aforementioned applications would all benefit from technologies that can precisely shape an ultrasonic wave. For instance, it would be a major advance, if it were possible to project ultrasound to form well-controlled pressure zones in a defined volume. In medical ultrasound it would, for instance, be beneficial if one could match the focal volume of the ultrasound to the precise shape of a tumor. This has thus far not been possible with high resolution. This ERC project HOLOMAN is developing technologies, computational models and applications that are based on our invention of the acoustic hologram, which permits sophisticated sound patterns to be formed. The hologram is used to control the phase and amplitude across an ultrasound beam with a specially designed mask, such that pressure images can be formed in space. Our goal is to develop the tools to compute the holograms that will yield pressure distributions (images) in 2D and 3D. These pressure distributions can exert forces on microparticles and/or cells, and a major goal of the ERC project is to realize the contactless, parallel assembly of an object from particulate matter “in one shot”. Another goal is to develop technologies that allow the dynamic projection of ultrasound patterns and images, i.e. a projector for ultrasound (pressure) movies. We will use our tools to investigate the interaction of ultrasound microrobotic systems and biological matter.