Sono, a noise cancelation and isolation device that sticks on your window

If you’re the sort that needs peace and quiet to get anything done, escaping the noise pollution of every day life — regardless of where you’re located — is no easy task. A new device that sticks onto your window, Sono, will not only cancel real-world noise, but isolate the noises you’d prefer to hear, if any.

You live in a corner apartment, and your one, meager window faces a beautiful, serene park. However, in front of that park is a major metropolitan road, host to loud traffic throughout the day. If not for the constant stream of cars and barking dogs, the soothing sounds of chirping birds and the wind rustling through trees would make its way across the street and into your bedroom. With Sono, you can stick the device right on your window, and fiddle with some settings to either cancel out noise entirely, or cancel out the specific noises that are drowning out the peaceful ones.

Sono it’s a concept created by Austrian industrial designer Rudolf Stefanich. Sono works by vibrating a window in a pattern counter to the vibrations caused by the ambient noise, essentially turning the surface into a noise-canceling speaker. During prototype testing, Sono’s transducer used active noise canceling to successfully lower the audio signal by 12 decibels — which would probably do a good job of blocking out quieter sounds in the 30-80 dB range, but you’d still definitely hear traffic and other loud sounds.

The device employs concentric broadband antenna rings, and can be charged through WiFi signals or the standard electric outlet, so your noise shield won’t unceremoniously lower in the middle of the night.

The strength of Sono is not that it can cancel out obnoxious ambient noises, but can still filter pleasant ambient noises through. So, not only can you still get the chirping birds and rustling leaves from that park across the street, but the sounds are natural — not some recreation on your phone that sounds very digital. Though Stefanich’s device is more of a concept than a tangible item, the theory behind the device was successfully tested with that aforementioned prototype, and it is a finalist for the James Dyson Award.

Info from Extreme Tech

O porquê dos arquitetos precisarem de usar os ouvidos

O nosso mundo cada vez mais barulhento está a corroer a nossa saúde mental. Julian Treasure estuda o som e aconselha empresas relativamente a como usá-lo melhor. É o presidente da Sound Agency, uma empresa que aconselha empresas por todo o mundo em como usar o som. Diz-nos para prestarmos atenção aos sons que nos rodeiam. Como é que eles nos fazem sentir: produtivos, nervosos, com energia?

Nesta Ted Talk, Treasure explica que devido a uma má acústica, os alunos em salas de aula perdem 50% do que os professores dizem, e pacientes em hospitais têm dificuldade em dormir porque continuamente se sentem stressados. Julian Treasure faz um apelo à ação dos designers e arquitetos para prestarem atenção à "arquitetura invisível" do som. 

Deixo-vos com outras duas Ted Talks do mesmo autor aqui (Sound Health in 8 steps) e aqui (5 ways to listen better).

Interesting facts about sound

The malleus, incus and stapes (otherwise known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup) are the smallest bones in the human body and are full size at birth.    All three together could fit on a penny. The whole area of the middle ear is no bigger than an M&M.    The cochlea (inner ear) is about the size of a pencil eraser.    The ear never stops working, even when people are asleep. The ear continues to hear sounds, but the brain shuts them out.    Ears are self-cleaning. Pores in the ear canal produce cerumen, or ear wax, and tiny hairs, called cilia, push the wax out of the ear.    Sound travels at the speed of 1130 feet per second, or 770 miles per hour.    A sonic boom occurs when an object breaks the speed of sound. The sound waves from behind and in front of the object crash into each other and create the boom.    Chuck Yeager was the first American pilot to travel faster than the speed of sound.    At 115 dB, a baby's cry is louder than a car horn.    In Africa, a tribe of people call Maabans live in such quiet that they can hear a whisper from across a baseball field, even when they are very old.    The hearing of a dog is more sensitive than humans. Dogs can hear much higher frequencies, which is why they respond to "silent" dog whistles. More than 28 million Americans have a hearing loss.    More than 1/3 of the U.S. population have a significant hearing impairment by age 65.    Approximately 2 million people are profoundly deaf.    One of every 1,000 infants is born totally deaf.    Sitting in front of the speakers at a rock concert can expose a person to 120 dB, which will begin to damage hearing in only 7-1/2 minutes.    It does not matter if you like the sounds you are exposed to. An orchestra playing Mozart at 120 dB will damage your hearing as quickly as Metallica playing at 120 dB.    Two out of three babies will have an ear infection before age 1.

 

Red Grapes, Red Wine Could Prevent Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline

Studies linking red wine with numerous health benefits are not new, though neither are studies coming to opposite conclusions, admittedly. But in the last decade or so, we’ve seen numerous bodies of research indicating a wealth of potential benefits in an occasional or even regular glass of red wine. Recently, scientists with the Department of Otolarynology-Head & Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital have found the active component within red wine and grapes, known as resveratrol, may help protect against both hearing loss and cognitive decline.

“Our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effect on bioinflammation, the body’s response to injury and something that is believed to be the cause of many health problems including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, aging, and hearing loss,” said the study’s lead author Michael D. Seidman, director of the Division of Otologic/Neurotologic Surgery.

The researchers looked at how resveratrol could protect against hearing loss and cognitive decline thought to be caused by cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), a “key to the inflammatory process”. They found that noise exposure caused an up-regulation of COX-2 while resveratrol inhibited COX-2 expression and actually reduced hearing loss caused by prolonged acoustic stimulation in rats.

“COX-2 levels are induced dramatically following noise exposure,” the study reads. “This increased expression may be a potential mechanism of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and a possibly mechanism of resveratrol’s ability to mitigate NIHL by its ability to reduce COX-2 expression.”

“We’ve shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline,” said Dr. Seidman. 

Resveratrol is found in most concentrated levels within the skin of red grapes, which is why it is found in red wine. While the benefits of red wine due to resveratrol are suspected to be many, critics warn against using red wine as a health food.

To that end, a study last fall by researchers with Rutgers University found that just two glasses of red wine each day can actually reduce brain cell production by up to 40%. They found that although motor skills and short-term associative learning were not affected by a blood alcohol level of .08 (the legal driving limit), brain cell production was.

What does this mean for you? It likely means that resveratrol has health benefits, but the alcohol in wine could negate those benefits if consumed in larger amounts. In other words, you can get your resveratrol from red grapes and even wine, but don’t continue to drink moderately if you’re concerned about the potential negative effects.

From Natural Society

Hearing protection - You're doing it wrong

How Old Are You Ears

Procedimento inovador nos EUA permite a uma criança surda de nascença ouvir pela primeira vez voz do pai

Há um video que está a emocionar milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo. Mostra o momento em que uma criança de três anos, surda desde a nascença, ouve pela primeira vez a voz do pai. Grayson Clamp é a primeira criança americana a receber um implante auditivo do tronco cerebral.

Notícia acedida em RTP.pt