4 ms·

I've been waiting to see active noise-canceling technology applied to more than just headphones. Imagine living next to a busy highway, near an airport, or abov

• kilburn 6y ago
  That is a much harder problem. Your headphones can record and generate cancelling noise because they don't move relative to your ear (and are so close that they receive the same noise that has to be cancelled). Once you are moving out and about around a room, a system such as this one would have to account for all the sounds coming in from all different directions, then track your position to figure out how all those will be reaching you, have a good model of how sounds bounce in your space and finally beam the cancelling sound straight to you (because cancelling noise is still noise, and if it starts bouncing around it will worsen the problem instead of helping it). That's why the best you can hope for (today and for many years to come) is just soundproofing. We can do amazing things already in this front.
  • patrickk 6y ago
    It would be amazing if even if we’re possible for a bedroom. The positions of the occupants are predictable. Cancelling out road vehicles, trains, planes (loud drunken voices?) would be a huge boost to countless people across the world.