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K3zi4 , (edited ) to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

I’ve always thought phase cancellation technology could potentially be crazy revolutionary. Seems these guys know what they’re doing, but the real challenges come with high decibel levels if I remember right.

If you tried to phase cancel out the sound of a jet engine, it would work and you wouldn’t hear it, but you could also have easily just burst your eardrums too, because the sound pressure level is still present, even if the actual sound is inaudible. It’s a crazy phenomena.

Edit: the sound pressure level IS cancelled out by destructive wave interference, but if this is knocked even by a matter of milliseconds, the wave is doubled and that’s not good for anyone.

Also, on retrospect, phenomena was poor word choice. It’s physics.

bluemellophone ,

We can start with cancelling my neighbor’s dog at 6AM and work our way up to jet tarmac zen garden.

LibertyLizard ,

Wait, what? Doesn’t phase cancellation actually cancel the waves? How can it be inaudible but still present?

vector_zero ,

The waves are canceled (i.e. gone) until something goes wrong. You could end up accidentally causing constructive interference, in which case you my double the sound’s amplitude.

ryannathans ,

Thankfully double would only be 3db, and 10db is about a doubling by our perception?

br3d ,

Yes - but 3db is twice the energy, which is what matters when it comes to damaging your cochlea

LibertyLizard ,

I feel like this doesn’t happen very often though. I mean I wear sound canceling headphones all the time and I’ve never noticed it accidentally making anything louder. Then again, I don’t normally stand near jet engines.

R00bot ,
@R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

My noise cancelling headphones make wind noise much louder when it’s really windy.

K3zi4 ,

I wouldn’t imagine noise cancelling headphones would have the ability to output high enough for serious damage. But some people do experience discomfort and pressure when using noise cancelling headphones for the first time, this could be due to a number of factors though.

K3zi4 ,

Yes, sorry, I didn’t phrase that well at all. The sound pressure is actually cancelled out, but with the hypothetical example of the jet engine, anything going wrong could double the dB level instead of cancelling, and because we’re talking milliseconds difference, it would be quite easy to go wrong in this sense.

TechieDamien ,

It can’t double the dBs. It will only add 3 as dBs are a log scale and +/-3dBs is double/half.

K3zi4 ,

Oops, yes, this. A perceived doubling!

Pennypacker ,

Besides what you mention, I have my reservations about ‘crazy revolutionary’. If I remember correctly, noise cancelling only works in one very concentrated spot where the waves are measured and cancelled out. If you move a couple of inches, the cancellation isn’t perfect anymore and does practically nothing. That’s why ANC headphones work well (always right by your ear) but any other open application seems implausible to me.

K3zi4 ,

Absolutely, this is spot on, but if they can find ways to work around this like with these microphone swarms they’re proposing, then there could be a lot more applications for it. Some quite scary.

LesserAbe ,

You’re right. Without a demonstration I don’t believe it works. Could be a misunderstanding on the part of the author trying to interpret what the inventors are saying…

redcalcium ,

Wouldn’t this system cause more noise for people on other tables around you?

jimbolauski ,

Yes when the path between the noise and the noise canceling is out of phase the sound will be lower when they are in phase it will be amplified. Their canceling speakers will need to be very directional to stop this from happening

ChaoticEntropy , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

Is it a robot that smacks people when they go above a certain decibel level?

Blackdoomax , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

Make robot who would make next table conversations interesting.

embit , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

The cafes would not want that because guests are expected to leave and make room for new ones after some time. That’s also why they crank up the music in these places.

PetDinosaurs ,

Exactly. The restaurants are being made to be loud on purpose.

Hard surfaces everywhere. Loud music.

I’m tempted to get a decibel meter and threaten to file OSHA complaints.

Steve , (edited ) to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

I’d say we almost certainly have different definitions of what ‘silence’ means.

Agent641 ,

I can already do that

waves gun

Ryantific_theory ,

screaming intensifies

“Whoops, turned it up instead of down, one sec.”

BANG

LillyPip , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

I’m super sceptical. Someone claims this every year lately and it always turns out to be bullshit.This is like the constant claims of free energy.

Live press conference with demo or it didn’t happen.

waterbogan , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

The thing is, we dont generally needed the noisy table muted, we just need it reduced in volume enough at our own table so we are able to carry out a normal conversation

hoch , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?

Forbidden sushi

XTornado ,

If only the PCB was white…

Nonameuser678 , to technology in Noise-canceling robots to 'mute' loud conversations in cafe | What if we told you that we can actually silence a noisy table right next to us in a café?
@Nonameuser678@aussie.zone avatar

As an autistic person this technology could actually allow me to access the community without being overwhelmed. This is revolutionary and would change my life.

atzanteol , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"

But it’s the size of a room and can only be charged twice?

Battery articles annoy me to no end. They’re always overly optimistic about the new features and ignore the regressions.

Varyk , (edited )

And discharges a little over a volt. Yea. The limitations of “new” “breakthrough” batteries need to come at the top of the article.

batmaniam ,

That voltage output is pretty typical. They should have gone with “cell” over “battery” though.

Varyk ,

Good point

Jamie ,
@Jamie@jamie.moe avatar

It’s the presentation of the information that really matters. Even if it’s not effective, a water based battery proof of concept is still better than nothing. Just because it isn’t practical right now doesn’t mean it isn’t noteworthy.

The issue is presenting it with the implication that it’s a ready to use product.

batmaniam ,

Did I miss that or are you saying it rhetorically? I didn’t pull the actual scientific article but this one mentioned decent performance over 800 cycles and 100 mAh/g. I’m not really up on this kind of tech but that seems pretty nifty for a new chemistry .

If you were just being rhetorical I get the frustration. There’s always gremlins hiding somewhere.

Still, I take stuff like this as indicitive that were absolutely not going to be stuck with Li ion forever.

atzanteol ,

Sorry, I was definitely being rhetorical. I’m happy to see research continue, I just tire of the hype…

abhibeckert , (edited )

This sounds like it’s worth the hype to me. It has about the same energy density as lithium-ion, and it uses non-toxic and abundantly available materials (unlike lithium-ion).

The cycle count is a little poor but it’s in the ballpark of lithium-ion, is likely to get better, and is much less of an issue if the batteries are non-toxic.

Also… the fact it’s non toxic could effectively reduce the weight especially for small batteries (where they’re still not safe enough despite heavy enclosures - kids literally die after swallowing coin cell lithium batteries).

batmaniam ,

I’d say worth discussing but none of these articles are ever “hype” worthy. Its really cool to know about, and should point to a brighter future, but there are always gremlins in this kind of thing. Even fuel cells, which have a deserved reputation on WAY over hyping early, helped lay the groundwork for a lot of manufacturing infrastructure and technical know how that laid the work for a lot of the battery boom we saw and continue to see.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

I’m like, how bad are salt water batteries that this is an “achievement”?

batmaniam ,

Salt batteries are really bad, but, you know, at least they’re salt. I don’t know much about salt batteries at the expert level, but I also work on an e-chem system that is low current low density. There’s definitely applications, especially because materials and tanks are cheap, but it turns out power is stupid cheap as well.

I don’t think anyone can really predict a new “winner” right now, but it’s the biggest reason why I’m a proponent of electronification in general; we absolutely won’t be tied to Lithium forever.

frezik ,

The mAh/g might be comparable, but it’s only 1V per cell. Lithium cells are 3.3V per cell, so the overall Wh/kg is worse than three times lower.

Since it’s made of cheap and abundant materials, it could still be useful for grid storage, or for a cheap commuter EV.

batmaniam ,

Yeah I suppose thats true, I mean without a power curve the OCV isn’t all that interesting to me (and that power curve is going to be influenced by manufacturing which is probably not optimized and may or not be compatible etc etc). So like I said, neat bit of chemistry, but I do get why people get burned out on these articles.

Hazdaz ,

…and they are usually (but not always) written by someone with almost zero technical knowledge.

sugar_in_your_tea , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"

I didn’t see it in the article, but do they have a comparison in terms of energy density vs alternatives? What niche are they trying to fill?

Environmentally friendly batteries are exciting, just trying to gauge how excited I should be.

chiisana ,
@chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net avatar

I wonder how big it is to physically deliver (only) 1.25 V at a capacity of 110 mAh. This won’t be powering much of anything in the near term. Also I’d be curious, as they claim it being water and organic matter based, if we could just “drain” the existing battery quickly and load in new pre-charged fluid to quickly recharge (I.e. recharge an EV as quickly as a gasoline based vehicle).

Spzi ,

if we could just “drain” the existing battery quickly and load in new pre-charged fluid

That would be huge!

For this, of course, it matters a lot how energy dense the battery is. Also for the environmental impact. If I have to exchange three gigatons of liquid for my trip to the grocery store, a rolling coal truck might have the smaller footprint.

p1mrx ,

The battery can deliver a stable voltage output of 1.25 V and a capacity of 110 mAh/g

110 mAh/g * 1.25 V * 1000 g/kg = 137 Wh/kg.

Lithium ion is around 250 Wh/kg, so this battery is around twice as heavy.

DreadPotato ,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

Seems like a decent option for stationary energy storage then.

diskmaster23 , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"

Vaporware?

Ubermeisters ,

Condensated vapor ware

ASeriesOfPoorChoices ,

Dehydrated vaporware

Ubermeisters ,

Distilled and evaporated to perfection

TonyTonyChopper , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"
@TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz avatar

Professor Jia said that most batteries contained hazardous materials and could pollute the environment when disposed of in landfills or when thrown out elsewhere. He said that materials like lead, cadmium, and mercury

what year is it?

itsonlygeorge , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"

Is this like the water powered car? Get ready for it to disappear.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The water powered car “disappeared” because it was never real in the first place. Every “demonstration” has turned out to be a hoax. It doesn’t even make sense in terms of physics.

SkyeStarfall ,

Water is effectively the ash equivalent of hydrogen. If you burn carbon stuff you get ash from the impurities as well as CO2 (and some other possible things), and when you burn hydrogen you get water.

You cannot burn water because it’s already burnt.

Robert7301201 , to technology in Water-based battery "safe, efficient, non-toxic"

I expected this to be a satirical article for pumped hydro.

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