Here’s an idea for thing.
I often work late at night when my flatmates are asleep. I like to have music on but I don’t want to disturb them. Headphones are one option but not particularly comfortable for extended periods, especially when I just want background music, so I usually keep the volume down very low indeed, and then as the night progresses and I get more attuned to the silence outside I turn it down further until I might as well not be listening to music at all.
What I’d like is a monitor that sits outside my door and listens out for my music. It’s connected to the computer so it knows what to listen for and should any noises match the patterns coming from my speakers it automatically turns the volume down (at the same time ignoring my flatmates when they go to the loo or something). That way I can have my tunes at an audible volume and be safe in the knowledge that I’m not disturbing anyone else.
I expect to see this in the shops by Christmas.
These devices have been around for quite a long time. They’re called “Parents”.
Stand your speakers on egg cartons. This will stop direct noise transmission though contact with a solid surface which is the way most noise travels from point A to point B. (yep, this was part of my HNC course)
The device you want is a noise-cancelling microphone wired into the gain circuit of your amplifier, or, via your sound card microphone input, to a bit of software that accomplishes the same task.
A noice cancelling circuit can be added to a standard cheapo mike, and the plans for such circuits are widely available. It’ll be a couple of op-amps and some resistors.
Like the man says:
http://www.dsprelated.com/showmessage/42415/1.php
Just transpose the comments about the headset into comments about your room. Same theory applies, as you know.
Plantronics have been doing helicopter headsets for decades, so have a look round their site, buy some kit, tear it apart and reconfigure it as needed.
However, if you want a simple solution, just ask the roomies if they ever hear your tunes in the middle of the night. Chances are that it doesn’t bother them, unless you start playing Wagner or some such.
na ya mad head what you on about!?
What you want…is a device that creates exactly the same dB SPL level out of phase with your music within a radius of the drivers, everything outside this radius will then be silent and you could pump the music to ELEVEN!
Thanks, I think. Once my head gets around that I’ll, um…
Truth is I don’t bother anyone with my music. One of the grat things about living with people who’ve been living in shared houses for years is they’d let me know in an instant (as I would to them) if something was annoying.
The problem is I overcompensate and would like some independent way of negating my overcompensation slightly.
This reminds me of one of my ideas – it’s a system for knowing when one of the lightbulbs on your car has expired.
The headlight assembly needs to have a separate cavity for each bulb. Within each cavity there is a light sensor. If current is flowing to the bulb, but no light is being detected by the sensor, then a warning is flagged up on the dashboard.
Light sensor? If the bulb is fine, the current is flowing and you can detect that. If the current isn’t flowing when it should, there’s a fault. It’s trivial, which is why this kind of thing is only available on things like top-end BMWs :)
Good point. Why didn’t I think of that?
Thanks for the reminder Pete.
and
Ooh ! Christmas presents for flatmates past.
:)