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One-Way Sound Walls Proven Possible

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-sound-walls-make-good-neighbors dept.

disco_tracy writes "Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can't hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it. The concept — a kind of one-way mirror for sound — seems imaginary, but two Italian scientists recently pushed this kind of sound manipulating technology closer to reality (abstract)."

16 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Really necessary? by jspenguin1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's wrong with an ordinary soundproof wall with a microphone on one side and a speaker on the other?

    1. Re:Really necessary? by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Where would we be if people were happy with what they had? There's probably all kinds of situations, and even new inventions, that could use this that we can't even think of at the moment.

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      Technoli
    2. Re:Really necessary? by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They missed the obvious use case. Think of the Children!

      Parents can hear kiddie outside when he wants a cookie, but kiddie can't hear the grownup sounds inside the bedroom.

      --
      My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
    3. Re:Really necessary? by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This would be material based and not require additional power?

      It would be great for those baby-rooms they used to have in movie theaters. The people inside could hear the movie without the audience hearing the screaming kid.

  2. Band... by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can't hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it.

    They can't be a very good band if they can hear somebody talking in the next room while they're playing...

    --
    No sig today...
    1. Re:Band... by Abstrackt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can't hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it.

      They can't be a very good band if they can hear somebody talking in the next room while they're playing...

      Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an amp for an air guitar?

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  3. Huh? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 3

    "Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can't hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it."

    How does this wall mean the musicians will hear the talking over their own music? Is there one-way sound air coming soon too?

    1. Re:Huh? by Garble+Snarky · · Score: 5, Funny

      Time division multiplexing.

  4. Wave diode applicable to light? by Garble+Snarky · · Score: 3, Informative

    The article describes the proposed theoretical mechanism as a "wave diode" - I wonder if the same principle is applicable to light? I don't know if "light diodes" already exist in some sense, but that seems like a possibly useful component for optical computing...?

    1. Re:Wave diode applicable to light? by Garble+Snarky · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I believe one-way mirrors are completely dependent on highly disparate levels of light between the two regions. This paper describes a totally different physical mechanism.

  5. Lots of reasons by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 3

    The same reason why a 1 way mirror is better in some applications than a video camera on one side of a wall with a monitor on the other.

    On possible use is in security. People can avoid cameras, and small unseen microphones are not directional. Airports, casinos, police stations, and other security heavy areas will certainly have a use.

    Imagine the CIA setting up a room for foreign dignitaries. The dignitaries sweep the room for bugs. But unknown to them, the floor of their room is a 1 way sound barrier, with agents sitting below with directional microphones pointed at the ceiling underneath each room.

    Imagine a submarine with a section of the vessel being a 1 way sound room where large microphones reside. All other walls are sound deadened except 1 outside wall. More equipment could sit there than any outside array of microphones, listening for enemy ships... but without an outside sonar signature, and without worrying about hearing internal noises.

    Even naturalists would love it. Imagine a retreat in a forrest where every outside wall was 1 way, making it sound like you weren't even in a building, but the animals were not disturbed by the sounds you make snapping pictures and talking.

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    I8-D
  6. Re:I hope it works. by operagost · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure what this had to do with sound, but what you're thinking of already exists and it's called a peltier.

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    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  7. Washington DC's been surrounded by this for years. by bareman · · Score: 5, Funny

    We can hear the idiots inside but they don't seem to be able to hear us.

  8. This makes for by twentynine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a better masturbation chamber...

  9. Re:Uses by wiedzmin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Also submarines.

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    Bow before me, for I am root.
  10. It could make a fun gag item... by EvilSpudBoy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Make a small cube with each wall made of this material so that sound can enter the cube but it can't get out. Next, let it fill up with sound. Take it to the airport, construction sites, concerts, etc...

    Then you leave it somewhere with a sign on it that says, "Open Me."