Gizmodo: noise

Ecotones Adapts to Outside Sounds to Lull You to Sleep

Elaine Chow — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:45:00 EDT

Traditional sound machines tend to use white noise or repetitive nature sounds to compete with the cacophony of the outside, but that only works to a certain extent. Ecotones, by Silicon Valley start up ASTI, is hoping to one-up them by actually being able to adapt to the user's environment. You can choose from 12 different SoundStories—including settings, I bet, like ocean or rainforest—that play at 18-bit quality, better than standard CDs. Audio backgrounds react to cues in the listening space and combine them with hundreds of “natural” sounds to make a soundscape that's supposedly a lot more relaxing. It's available through Hammacher Schlemmer for $299. Wow, anything for a good night's rest, I guess? [Hammacher]

Thingamakit DIY Synthesizer is Horribly, Wonderfully Noisy

Kit Eaton — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:25:00 EDT

Weird... but I kinda want to hear more. That's roughly how I'd describe the sound output of the Thingamakit, a strange "noise monster" DIY synthesizer. I like the fact that it uses some sort of optical feedback: adjusting those tentacles affects how the sounds are generated, which then gets fed back to the LEDs in the tentacles. So it's a pleasingly tactile gizmo, and if you're really a strange-noise-machine-ophile, you'll also appreciate that you can buy it as a kit from maker Bleep Labs. [Bleep Labs via Hackaday]

Noise-Suppressing Cellphone Chip Will Slay "Can You Hear Me Now?" Guy Forever

matt buchanan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:44:23 EST

A new sand-grain-sized chip by Audience being demoed at MWC kills extraneous noise (better than current software-based suppression) so they can, even if it sounds like you're skydiving at the time.

Basically, this speck of silicon wonderment chills in between the mic and the cell's circuitry, where it maps sound as a 3-D matrix, scraping away up to 25 decibels of garbage, leaving just your deep baritones or whiny squeal. Besides letting your singing voice come through the way it was meant to be heard, dumping the excess baggage saves bandwidth, giving stingy-ass network providers a reason to push for this thing as well. [NYT]

Did You Know? 500 Pairs of Disposable Earbuds = Fine Art

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:45:56 EST

Half DJ and musician, half avant-garde artist, all geeky engineer, Andr Fernandes Avel s is the daddy of the Headphones art project. A one-night display in Stavanger, Norway this past month, the installation consisted of 500 pairs of earbuds tied together electronically and controlled by a mixer to create a controlled cacaphony of mind-altering sound.

Here's how it works: 960 of the little buds are speakers, collectively pushing buzzing sounds around the room, while the remaining 40 buds act as microphones to fuel the feedback loop. "Another unpredicted but welcomed sound source was some white noise from a fucked-up amplification circuit I built," says Avel s, who tells us he wants to stage the installation again in Amsterdam, where he lives. Below is a photo of Avel s putting the final touches on his project; he says audio and video samples of the event are coming soon.

[Make; Andr 's Flickr Gallery]

Intelligent Coconuts Working to Stop Airport Noise

msparkes — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:29:40 EDT

Intelligent coconuts are the latest invention to come out of the MIT Media Lab, designed to combat excessive airport noise. They have built-in noise sensors, and will be hung on trees surrounding San Jose International Airport. When they detect a jet coming in louder than it should they use their built-in cellphone to call the airport complaint hotline and leave one of four pre-recorded messages. Check out the clips after the jump.

Sample complaint 1
Sample complaint 2
Sample complaint 3
Sample complaint 4

I can imagine that having to delete hundreds of these every morning from your answerphone could be almost as annoying as living on the flight path of a major international airport. [TripWire]

The Mysterious MacBook Pro Noise

Jason Chen — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 14:09:07 EDT

What's this strange noise this guy's MacBook Pro makes?

For a few days now, my Macbook Pro has been making a sound I've never heard before in my life. I recommend you watch the last 20 seconds. It's not the hard drive. I sent it once to apple, they said they fixed it. But the noise came back.

To us it sounds like the fan straining from overuse. Perhaps it's even the hard drive, despite the owner saying it's not. Though, te sound is pretty similar to the noise one of my fans make in my desktop unit that's been clogged up with dust. Whatever it is, it seems like Apple should have fixed it the first go-round. – Jason Chen

Thanks Diego!

Silentmaxx ST11-PRO PC Case

Charlie White — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 13:19:42 EDT

When we're testing out a PC in these parts, one of the most important considerations is its noise level. The Silentmaxx ST11-PRO quiet PC case has that base covered, packed with acoustical material covering all of its insides and hushing any racket that might emanate from within. With plenty of room to install your own ultra-quiet fans, the Silentmaxx also has a ventilation grille atop the case, giving you plenty of ventilation if you want to install a fanless power supply.

This fine-looking case, along with some carefully-chosen fans and processors, might result in the quietest PC ever. We like that. Available in beige, black, silver or red, the Silentmaxx ST11-PRO case is $158. – Charlie White

Product page [QuietPC, via TRFJ]