If you’re one of the many who love city living but constantly curse the stress-inducing sounds of construction, car horns, garbage trucks, and yelling children, SONO will restore your sanity and bring your home to the pin drop quiet, peaceful state only found in the suburbs. Designed by Rudolf Stefanich, this pebble-shaped device could be applied to all of your home’s windows, turning them into a comprehensive noise canceling system.
The SONO allows users to control, or completely eliminate, the sounds that pass through their home. The device works similarly to noise canceling headphones, using tiny microphones that can pick up and wipe out ambient sounds. The SONO, however, takes the technology to a whole new level by counter-vibrating the window it’s stuck to in order to silence any sound coming from outside. To power the device, concentric broadband antenna rings harvest the energy of electromagnetic noise from Wi-Fi and similar signals.
Unfortunately, the SONO is only a working prototype at the moment, but Stefanich’s 2013 trials have shown a reduction of 12 decibels per SONO. The design was also recognized as a James Dyson Award finalist last year.
There’s still quite a ways to go with this one, but with a jackhammer going off right outside our office window as we type, we personally can’t wait for this device to be market ready.
More information on the design can be found on Rudolf Stefanich’s project page here.
Images courtesy of Rudolf Stefanich
Tags : construction noise, noise canceling systems, noise canceling windows, Rudolf Stefanich, sono