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IDEA: cancel elevator music

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hays_r:
Lately, (perhaps because my hearing is going a bit with age), I've become increasingly wishing the ubiquitous music played in stores would just go away.  And I have an idea that perhaps it's possible.

I am not a tech on how noise cancelling headphones work, but I understand they read the ambient noise and find frequency patterns associated with background that they can generate cancelling waves for.  I've also heard that there are now programs that can identify a song from a clip.  So why not have your cell phone listen to the music, identify it, and send cancelling waves to your ears? 

Heck, there might even be a commercial product there if the project is too big for a volunteer effort.  And given the difficulty my wife is now experiencing in hearing, this is a growing problem as the population ages that might even attract development funds from those concerned with those suffering hearing disability.

Have fun with this.

iphigenie:
You know what, this could make neighbourly relations so much easier  :Thmbsup:

4wd:
You know what, this could make neighbourly relations so much easier  :Thmbsup:
-iphigenie (July 26, 2011, 04:16 AM)
--- End quote ---

I'd prefer a Woofer Stopper1 connected to an LRAD-RX2 playing Celine Dion3 at full blast.

NOTES:
1. Noise, (usually dog bark), triggered ultrasonic dog whistle.
2. RX version gives you remote control via IP so you can use it from the safety of the other side of the planet.
3. Annoying high pitched noise known to shatter glass and eardrums....although puke-inducing subsonics would be more fun.

Stoic Joker:
I am not a tech on how noise canceling headphones work, but I understand they read the ambient noise and find frequency patterns associated with background that they can generate canceling waves for.-hays_r (July 26, 2011, 03:36 AM)
--- End quote ---

I tend to wonder of the sound waves truly cancel each-other out resulting in silence. Or do they just collide, and raise the ambient sound pressure to a high level of white noise?

I'm guessing directionality is critical.  :-\

Edvard:
Noise-canceling headphones work very simply; a microphone attached to the headphones (or in close proximity) feeds an amplifier which inverts the signal and feeds it into the headphones, so basically you are hearing the background and it's mirror-image at the same time, which results in cancellation.

Due to various technical considerations (like latency, phase distortion, proximity effect, etc.), noise-canceling is much more effective for low-frequency and continuous noise sources, like trucks passing on the freeway or the low hum of a refrigerator.
Unfortunately, elevator music does not fall into that scope.  :P

@4wd:
When you said "Woofer Stopper" I thought you meant some way to stop the neighbor's kid from jacking his car subwoofer volume to vitriol-inducing levels.  :mad:

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