Software Noise Cancellation?

DangerTenor asks: "As I flew around the world, lusting after my coworker's $300 BOSE Quiet Comfort Noise-cancelling headphones, I looked down at my laptop computer and noticed the built-in microphone. Has anyone written or considered writing software to run noise-cancellation based on the built-in mic?"

Comments

Better to be slient and be suspected a fool...

[tm2b]

...than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, eh?

You really are just another fucking English major, aren't you, asshole?

Sound is slow. Really really slow. While the previous poster wasn't quite correct about computer signals going the speed of light in copper, it's still up there in terms of magnitude. Figure that the signal going through the computer is going to be going 1,000,000 times faster than the sound and you'll be in the right neighborhood. That's plently of time to emit a signal that's exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the original sound, presumably in the human hearing range of frequencies.

There are active sound cancelling technologies in products such as the BOSE headset mentioned. And if it can be done in hardware, it can be done in software running on the following generation of hardware.

Great Ghu save us from people who think they know more than they actually do!