Research fellows from Nanyang Technology University checking sound level passing through the window of a mock-up room in Singapore. — AFP
Sick of noise from construction work, speeding trains and car alarms flooding in through the open window of your tiny apartment in a crowded metropolis?
Scientists believe they have found a way for city dwellers to let in fresh air while reducing the urban cacophony – and it is a bit like popping massive, noise-cancelling headphones onto your flat.
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Research fellows from Nanyang Technology University checking sound level passing through the window of a mock-up room in Singapore. — AFP
NTU researchers are looking into ‘using noise to fight noise’ to allow city-dwellers in Singapore to block city noises. — AFP
When noise such as traffic or a subway train is detected, the speakers generate sound waves that cancel out some of the din – much in the same way some high tech headphones work. — AFP
The research team from NTU hope the solution will be of use in the space-starved city-state, where many complain of noise flooding into apartments. — AFP
NTU researchers hope that allowing people to keep windows open for natural ventilation will reduce the use of energy-hungry air conditioners, and might improve people’s health by cutting noise, which causes problems such as disturbed sleep. — AFP
While blocking the racket from outside, it also ‘lets in the natural ventilation and lighting through the windows’, researchers said at a lab where a prototype of the device had been set up. — AFP
Under the system devised in Singapore, 24 small speakers are placed on the metal grille of an open window to create what researchers termed an ‘acoustic shield’. — AFP
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