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"Cone of Silence" Possible Say Scientists
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The 'Cone of Silence,' once a staple of 1960's television shows, is now possible say scientists at Duke University who first demonstrated a working 'cloak of invisibility' that works at microwave frequencies in 2006. Such a cloak designed for audio frequencies might hide submarines in the ocean from detection by sonar or improve the acoustics of a concert hall by effectively flattening a structural beam. Although the theory used to design such acoustic devices so far isn't as general as the one used to devise the microwave cloak, the finding nonetheless paves the way for other acoustic devices. 'We've now shown that both 2-D and 3-D acoustic cloaks theoretically do exist,' says Researcher Steven Cummer. 'It opens up the door to make the physical shape of an object different from its acoustic shape.'"
Sadly the article is sorta light on details.
Anyone have some insight on how exactly this sort of thing is accomplished, aside from the article's reliance on materials that seemingly don't exist yet?
Max: What?
Chief: What?
Max: What?
Chief: What?
I've always wanted to build one of those, I even have a sketch, bill of materials, etc.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Here is an image to explain it all:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/12/funny-pictures-invisible-ice-cream-cone/
Since when has an object's acoustic shape ever matched its physical shape to begin with? It's usually more like a sphere.
Researchers at the Teckla Institute for Scientific Advancement have determined that it's possible to have a "Cone of Nonsense" that remains stable for months, even years.
"Take, for example, the Cone of Nonsense generated at Slashdot, an online site dedicated to News for Nerds," says Dr. Teckla, a long-time scientist at the Institute. "We've identified at least two powerful Cone of Nonsense forces there, which we've named the 'Roland Piquepaille Effect' and the 'Ponca City, We Love You Force'."
Combine these potent forces with 'ScuttleMonkey Energy', and the result is a stable, if frightening, Cone of Nonsense.
"We're not sure what happens if you enter this Cone of Nonsense," commented Dr. Teckla, "But we're pretty sure it drops your I.Q. by 50 points.
"It opens up the door to make the physical shape of an object different from its acoustic shape."
The only show I can think of that featured the Cone of Silence was Get Smart! What other shows featured this technology?
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
Every time my wife asks me to do something, I don't hear it.
Every time I ask her to do something, she doesn't hear me.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Here is the old theoretical paperOne path to acoustic cloaking, New Journal of Physics, v. 9, 45, 2007. [pdf reprint] The Science Daily article is just a reprint of the Duke press release. Steven A. Cummer seems to provide PDF "reprints" of all his papers but the new one isn't in that list. Nor can it be found on David Smith' page, David Schurig's old Duke page, or his new NC State page, Sir John Pendry's page, or Anthony Starr's page.
Every motel room should have one.
Fata viam invenient.
Just change how you look for them. Instead of looking for signature noise, look for a "hole" in the background noise of the ocean.
The thumpa-thumpa (which neigbors are fond of)music is driving me nuts.
If it needs a supermarket trolley to carry the equipment around in, well that's a small price to pay.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
The devices the article talks about are not what you want from a cone of silence. What the researchers are proposing is something that will hide an object from external noises - as in the object will not affect any sound waves heading towards it, they will just pass straight through as if the object and cloaking device were not there. The proposed device WILL NOT contain noise created by whatever you're trying to hide, so the bad guys can still listen for a submarine's engines, they just won't be able to use active sonar to find the submarine.
If you want a cone of silence, then you put yourself in a noise isolation chamber. Or if you want something cooler, then you put yourself in the acoustic equivalent of a gap-defect photonic crystal, which is a series of cylindrical rods arranged in a hexagonal lattice with one removed. A particular wavelength of sound will be reflected by this lattice, so if you're in the middle of that gap and you sing at that frequency, no-one outside the lattice will be able to hear you. Of course, you will very quickly become deaf because the sound is all reflected within the defect rather than absorbed, so the noise from your singing builds up.
Beware, this metamaterial could be the technology of flatulent terroristas! Silent and deadly...
so it is not relevant
Sorry about that, Chief, I think he just meant that that was when he was a kid, not that he thought the show was produced in that era. It was syndicated a lot more heavily in those years than it is now, at least on any channel I have access to.
I was just about to type that the series still wasn't available on DVD, but I checked Amazon and I was wrong, it finally is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LXTPDY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top. Looks like in the near future I'm going to be staying up for over fifty hours straight, living on caffeine and snack foods, not bathing, not shaving, while my body slowly atrophies, enduring potential cardiac arrest just to watch all 138 episodes in a row . . . And loving it.
I am not a crackpot.
A similar sonar cloaking device was described in a Tom Swift novel I read when I was kid. I wonder if the researchers read the same book?
This needs to be rushed-to-market and mandated for all mobile phone users. ...At least in restaurants, theaters, funerals and other public spaces! Maybe they could rename it the "courtesy cone" ;)
What?! Over 35 comments and no single mention of the cone of silence in Herbert's "Dune". Hand over your geek cards now!
Just wait until the politicians hear about this, then apply it to campaign contributions...
Take Nobody's Word For It.
It should also help in keeping shoe phone conversations private.
There was one, and only one, sixties tv show that had the Cone of Silence, and if you don't know that, perhaps you should answer your shoe phone....
On the microwave invisibility front, "hiding subs"? Reality check time: my wife, back in the early eighties, was in the "Hunt for Red October" command. All you need is a school of fish, or a cold water current, and the hunters can't find *anything*. Detecting subs is vastly over-pr'd, and under-possible.
mark
This better not be part of an ARG for the upcoming Get Smart movie.
then they wouldn't keep getting busted up by the cops
The movie The Nude Bomb can be found on cable as "The Return of Maxwell Smart". I have it sitting on my TiVo recorded in HD waiting for me to do a capture of it downcoverted to anamorphic and made into my own homebrewed DVD (to be replaced with the commercial version when it becomes available, naturally).
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
He was also the voice of penguin Tennessee Tuxedo before Get Smart and of Brain in the Inspector Gadget movie.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Completist or glutton for punishment? ;)
I am not a crackpot.
I must admit falling in lust with 99.
Shows my age.
Don't forget that the whole premise was built on the early James Bond movies that also spawned James Coburn "In Like Flint" and Dean Martin's "The Silencers", but Get Smart beat them all by about a year I think.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Makes me wonder.
Has anyone ever equipped bats with headphones that control them remotely?
Got to be the funniest comment I've seen all year.