A Scientific Breakthrough in Noise Reduction

nautil.us

29 pointsakaij4 comments

I live near a large interstate and the noise produced by it is loud enough that the state has approved a sound barrier to be built. Naturally it will be made out of wood or, if I’m lucky, stone. When the project was announced I couldn’t help fantasizing about some sci-fi membrane barrier type thing that would perfectly cancel noise just like a force field cancels force. To read this article gives me hope that I’m going to live long enough to see such cool tech.

I don’t think active noise cancellation can work like you are hoping. Active noise cancellation works for a target location (your ear’s location) not for a general area. It works by wave superposition cancelling out the wave for the target location. But the waves won’t cancel at any other location.

I think you want something more like metamaterials that can be put on walls for homes and offices. Like https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/new-material-acts-...

It can work like that in principle, if you have several microphones and emitters, though most practical implementations do focus on canceling at a certain point in space, as you mention.

Meta materials look very cool, thanks for sharing!

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