noise canceller for street noise?

[drewshin]

i had heard somewhere that you could buy a device to place on the outside of your home that would cancel out a lot of the street noise that could be heard inside the house, is this true?

i usually get racers down my street at night that make a LOT of noise. wondering if things like this exist...

 

[BillGates]

Machine guns would also work to quell noise. Soon nobody will dare walk or drive down your street.

 

[Hossenfeffer]

I'm guessing you could get something that would cancel out background noise. As with noise-cancelling headphones, it'll catch the constant sounds and have less success with intermittent.

 

[RavnShield]

I am interested too since i am livin in detroit currently, but i kind of got use to it.

 

[drewshin]

yeah or those tire spike things like the cops use 🙂

 

[BennyD]

yes you can get them, they project directional silence, but no idea where to get them

 

[poMONKey]

these devices work, but they create a "noise" of their own ( beyond human hearing... ) to cancel out the noise you can hear... so in reality, your ears are still working, and now, twice as hard...

somehow i dont think these will kill the noise of a high rev engine @ 8000 rpm blasting by your house 😛

 

[MedicBob]

I used 4 computers running at the same time to cut out the noise. 😱

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: poMONKey
these devices work, but they create a "noise" of their own ( beyond human hearing... ) to cancel out the noise you can hear... so in reality, your ears are still working, and now, twice as hard...

somehow i dont think these will kill the noise of a high rev engine @ 8000 rpm blasting by your house 😛

Umm...

Not exactly.

They produce a wave that's the inverse of the sound to be eliminated - The two sound waves interfere with each other, & (in a perfect world) the end result is nothing.

Viper GTS

 

[radioouman]

And now your house can go "woooo woooooo"!!

 

[Sketcher]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Umm...

Not exactly.

They produce a wave that's the inverse of the sound to be eliminated - The two sound waves interfere with each other, & (in a perfect world) the end result is nothing.

Viper GTS

Viper GTS is correct. Supporting Link

"Canceling out sound waves can be done electronically. There are now special noise suppression headsets that have a microphone and electronics built in. The microphone detects the noise, changes it to an electrical signal and relays it to the speaker in the headset, which turns the signal back into sound. This is how any microphone-speaker system works.

What makes it different is that the electronics puts the recorded signal exactly out of phase with the actual sound, which is so loud that it easily gets through the headset to the person's ear. The sound from the headset then is just the same sound and as loud as the noise, but it is completely out of phase with the noise, thus canceling the sound.

What is amazing here is that we can add two loud noises that are simply out of phase, and we end up with silence!"

This really only works well in controlled spaces, typically "small" environments. The amount of power and signal to noise ratio that would be required to significantly block all outside noise from being heard from within the house would be cost prohibitive and very likely not healthy. A relatively "small" environment example would be "Bose Quiet comfort Headphones". The cost prohibitive factor is that they cost approx. $300.00. Imagine what a large scale system for effective noise cancelling would cost...

Other interesting link:

Signal System Corp, Active Noise Control

 

[zCypher]

Originally posted by: Sketcher

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: poMONKey
these devices work, but they create a "noise" of their own ( beyond human hearing... ) to cancel out the noise you can hear... so in reality, your ears are still working, and now, twice as hard...

somehow i dont think these will kill the noise of a high rev engine @ 8000 rpm blasting by your house 😛

Umm...

Not exactly.

They produce a wave that's the inverse of the sound to be eliminated - The two sound waves interfere with each other, & (in a perfect world) the end result is nothing.

Viper GTS

Viper GTS is correct. Supporting Link

In other words, it's not going to work in the way the person is hoping 😉

 

[drewshin]

thanks for the links and info all, i guess i'll petition my city to put in speed humps, or other devices 🙂

 

[Marauder-]

"One cool idea for piezoelectric devices is to suppress unwanted noise from another apartment.

For example, suppose the person in the next apartment has his stereo on real loud. In some cases, you can even feel the wall vibrate. By placing piezoelectric devices on the wall, they can detect the wall vibrations and generate vibrations in an opposite phase. Thus would completely cancel out the noise coming from the other apartment"


"Unfortunately, such a configuration is too expensive for the average person. I don't think there is anything commercially available. But it is a good idea and application."