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Cancelling Out CPU Fan Noise
Percy_Blakeney writes "After realizing how noisy his computer was, a professor at BYU has created a new CPU fan that uses small microphones and speakers to cancel out its own noise. It isn't perfected yet -- it only nixes the whine, not the whoosh -- but it looks like it could be promising, especially given the professor's background: making jet engines quieter."
...if it were applied to noise reduction of one's ass after a good bean based dinner. ;p
Un-news
When my CPU fan starts to make noise, I just whack my case until it stops.
Maybe on the inside. On the outside, they're already quiet enough that I miss when they're coming up behind me.
Damned cars always trying to stalk and eat me.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Excuse me, what did you say?
But if this guy can do it with 20 bucks it means that it's much easier than I though.
Either that or he's much smarter than you. Which I would imagine is the case if he's a professor at Boston...
Hey Scott, please take a stroll northword toward Lindon, find the SCO campus, and do your magic.
Thats really cool. Its like those amazing bose noise cancelling headphones.
I have wondered if it was possible to do this in my house. Where I live there is a lot of people who like to scream at each other alot, and it rather gets on the nerves. It would be cool if you could record your neighbourhood noises, and instantly replay them out of phase into your living room. Presto. The beautiful sounds of silence.
CPUs don't get as hot as they used to; the bits move much faster through today's processors as a result of lower overhead friction. Lower friction means less heat, less heat means no need for noisy fans. The fan blade and bearing industry would have you believe that your off-the-shelf PC needs several fans to keep cool but this is simply to prop up the illusion that your system is so powerful that it needs to sound like a jet engine (pun NOT intended) to demonstrate the raw power needed to cool such a strong processor.
- eT
Once you silence my CPU, you'll hear my hard drive. After you silence my hard drive, contend with my video card cooler. Quiet my video card cooler, and hear all 4 of my case fans instead. Quiet those, and hear the active cooler on my northbridge. Shut that up, and I'll go mad with all the silence...
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
Of course he is much smarter than I am, otherwise I wouldn't be posting on slashdot.
;)
And I'm French, remember
Iraq: war to save the U
Mod poinst? But, um, you just posted....
Finally I can run that 120mm x 38mm Tornado fan at full speed without going deaf! I wonder if the same device could be used to silence my computer's other 10 fans.
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
"I have heard of something like that for cars ages ago, basically replays the engine sound over the car sound to negate it."
Alternatively instead of wasting all that money on a sound cancelling system you could just install hugeass speakers, sub and an enormous exhaust pipe, that way no-one will be able to even *hear* the engine noise over all that deafening dance music you'll be playing.
If you feel like it add undercar neons and go-faster stripes for extra style - they're guaranteed to bring the hot chicks from miles around.
This noise reduction technology only cuts out whining, you say? Can I order one medium sized one for my wife, 3 smalls for the kids and an extra large for my mother-in-law? I'll pay extra for overnight delivery!
I want the fire back.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have honestly seen computers put in freezers. Keeps it cool and eliminates noise at the same time. Leaves less room for the ice cream though.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
We have a industrial PC that sits in a wind-tunnel. To us that's the largest cooling fan anyone would ever want.
$ echo 'I CANT HEAR YOU' | rev
:)
UOY RAEH TNAC I
Ah, the silence
668.5
A Beowulf cluster of those, attached to Rush Limbaugh.
I probably should have built a noise canceling tower or some similar nonsense, so I could get published.
Instead of all the research and electronics, I put a drop of oil on the axle and removed the dust from the blades with a q-tip. It's been silent ever since.
Silly me.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Sommerfeldt set about to find a way to drown out the whinny noise from built-in fans that cool computers and other electronic devices.
Did he try a fan with less horsepower?
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Sadly in a lot of places that's true... Of course it doesn't work if you like your hot chicks with at least the intelligence of a pile of rocks.
lets modify it to cancel out darl mcbride when he speaks
Yeah man, damn plants and cubicles never shut the hell up.
-Reid
I think what you're saying would be a good approximation if the distance between the two speaker diaphragms was much smaller than a wavelength of sound. In reality, the wavelength of audible sound is on the order of 10 cm, and although the distance between them may be somewhat less than that, it's still probably at least a cm or so. So here's the situation. The original speaker spews out sound in all directions, that sound has energy, and only some of that energy impinges on the second speaker. For the energy that impinges on the second speaker, it is at least theoretically possible for it all to be absorbed as mechanical work, and converted into heat and electrical energy. But the rest of the sound was radiated in other directions, and has existed for a millisecond or something now. If you cancel that sound, you're doing it "in flight," so there's no physical mechanism for expending it as mechanical work; it has to come off as radiated sound in other directions.
Then again, I could be totally wrong, like I was in my reply to your first post.
No testicles need to be wagered :-) :-)
Oh good -- I'll put away the exacto knife, then
Find free books.
Wait, how do you know that the chicks will come? DO you have.. experience? You don't belong here! WE do not know of these chicks...
Marvin knew: "Think of a number, any number..."
If you reverse the wires, it sounds like a V20.
I've constructed a simple device that cancels almost all noise from my fan. A common #2 pencil inserted into the fan blades does the trick quite nicely. I've used this system sucessfully on three different computers, and I can tell you that the noise reduction is dramatic. Oddly, all three of them stopped working within minutes due to unrelated problems.
Evil is the money of root.
The logical next step, then, is to evolve quieter blood!
Why are you driving on the pavement anyway? Are you trying to run people over? You should drive on the road like everyone else and leave the pavement clear for pedestrians.
"Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
Isolated Quiet Area: free
Index Fingers: free
Veins and Arteries: free
Watching all of Slashdot sitting in a corner and sticking their fingers in their ears: Priceless.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
That's odd, I though Wil Wheaton posted on /. as CleverNickName.