Why it Could be Curtains for Noisy Neighbours at Last

LONDON - Have you ever felt plagued by other people’s noise, whether it’s next
door’s booming stereo, or the incessant chatter from colleagues in the
cubicle next to you? The solution could lie in your own pocket. The inventors
of a new iPhone application claim that they can provide instant relief by
converting annoying noise into soothing sound.

SoundCurtain is the brainchild of Royal College of Art graduate and
founder of FutureAcoustic Andreas Raptopoulos who says he was inspired when
he first moved to London, one of the world’s noisiest cities. The high tech
application doesn’t block out outside noise as much as replace it with
something environmentally kinder - a highly effective sound barrier.

With more than 50% of the world’s population living in cities, personal
space is at a premium. We live with noise - in our homes, in workplaces, in
public spaces. Andreas noticed that although we design and control our
environments to a high extent, sound control remained elusive.

The problem intensifies in highly-populated environments where people
need to perform, like open-plan offices and is increasingly important for
people working at home or while traveling. Raptopoulos imagined a system that
would allow its users to tune the sound they are exposed to, concealing sound
that is distracting or irrelevant.

After yet another evening disturbed by his housemates, Andreas decided he
needed to try to find a solution to noise: “My housemates were doing what
comes naturally to students - partying on a Friday night. I still had work to
finish however, so I was sitting in my room trying to concentrate with music
and voices coming in through the walls. I figured I’m a designer - so it’s up
to me to find a solution!”

The result is a3, technology that ‘listens to’ outside noise using the
microphone on the iPhone headset, and transforms it into soothing ambient
sound.

The technology first came to attention when an early prototype won the
BSI Innovation Award in 1999. After graduating from the Royal College of Art
the young designer approached a leading US office furniture manufacturer. It
was here that he developed state of the art algorithms for real-time noise
masking - based on the same principles that mp3 uses to compress sound.

“SoundCurtain doesn’t block out outside noise, as much as replace it with
something environmentally kinder,” Raptopoulos explained. “What we try to
create through the transformation is a sound environment that can actually be
neglected by the brain. Imagine the sound of the sea, always fluctuating. At
first you listen to it, then it just fades into the background.”

Pointing out that the technology has practical applications for both home
and office, the developer added: “We want to take this to anyone annoyed by
noise - be whilst at work, trying to study at home, in the hospital,
commuting or travelling. Crucially, in comparison to the vast number of
’silly apps’ vying for space in rapidly over-crowded marketplace, this is a
grown-up application - not a game, not a toy.”

“This is terrifically sophisticated technology - the most advanced there
is - and can be applied to so many areas of our lives,” said Sir Christopher
Frayling, Rector of the RCA. “In this often madly interruptive world, I like
to think of SoundCurtain as affording me some very much needed thinking
space.”

Working with multi-nationals to develop a3 as a stand-alone ’sound
conditioning’ device, the technology has excited many key players in the
electronics and mobile industries. Following the launch on Apple handsets,
FutureAcoustic is already working on developing the application for other
mobile platforms including Nokia and Android.

Since the Apple App store opened in July 2008, the site’s 25,000
applications have been downloaded more than half a billion times. Industry
experts predict that across all platforms this could rise to literally
billions within the next year.

Notes to Editors:

FutureAcoustic is a Royal College of Art venture set up to commercialise
a3, the technology supporting SoundCurtain.

For more information please contact Aine Duffy, on +44(0)20-7590-4127 or
by e-mail at aine.duffy@rca.ac.uk

Source: Royal College of Art

For more information please contact Aine Duffy, on +44(0)20-7590-4127 or by e-mail at aine.duffy at rca.ac.uk