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Noise-cancelling interior | |||||||||||||||||
Car interiors are noisy. Since noise transmitted to the interior (engine, road, traffic sounds) for the most part is fairly steady/consistent, it should be possible to provide noise-cancellation technology for the vehicle interior. This could be an option--for those who like to be able to hear the radio, passenger conversations, their own thoughts--and it seems like it ought to be possible to provide it as an after-market product for older cars as well. You should be able to turn it off (when you want to check for weird mechanical noises, or when you are riding with e.g. your mother in law). How nice if it could be provided in buses, airplanes etc. so we wouldn't have to invest in those wonderful but expensive and bulky headphones.
schaplan, Nov 16 2006
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The big question here is what would you do about the windows in the vehicle? So much of the noise coming from the car, and its surroundings, is actually coming off the glass which is surrounding you on all sides.
The problem here is delicately balancing the incoming sound vectors with sound vectors 180 degrees out of phase and with the same amplitude for each sound source. Noise cancelling technologies work for head phones and hands-free microphones because the sound manipulation occurs in a very small surface area.
To make this work practically, the driver or passenger would need to wear a small headset. Or potentially, a computer would have to provide complex sound feedback based upon sensing the location and orientation of your ears relative to the major sources of undesireable sound.
Many people add insulation to deaden the exterior noise of the car or purchase cars with low 'road noise'.
This technology is currently in the Acura RL and the Honda Accord Hybrid. I heard about it on the radio: the reviewer really liked it.