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Translucent curtains soak up sound
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 2:46 am
by Tzupy
This article at Physicsworld is about some new sound absorbing curtains:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45941
However, it doesn't seem to let air through, I wish I am wrong on this...
Maybe we should ask the boffins involved to make one that allows significant airflow through it.
Re: Translucent curtains soak up sound
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 8:52 am
by ces
There is a great deal of seminal work going on with so called "invisibility shields" relating to the manipulation of waves to behave in manners previously thought to be not possible.
This work is focused primarily on electromagnetic waves, but I read that it has applicability to all kinds of waves. I read that one application is to protect beaches from wave erosion.
There are likely to be a number of applications in coming years.... including filtering of electrical noise, optical lenses with refraction indexes of < 1 (previously thought impossible), sonogram machines, as well as acoustic noise.
It started with manipulation of electromagnetic signals with nanomaterials... but appears to have grown beyond that.
Somehow though I think it will be a while before we see the fruits of this labor in a PC. There are much larger and more compelling markets out there that will receive attention first.