Have you ever tried to get work done but were distracted by the noise around you? The scientists at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics have created an office chair that can cancel out any disturbing noises in the room. A research film showed that an open office can lose up to 86 minutes of productivity a day from distractions. The noises can be as simple as the constant humming of machinery or computers. There have been attempts to combat this in the past, with the example of noise cancelling headphones, but most are uncomfortable to wear for long hours.
These scientists customized a popular gaming chair by attaching flexible error microphones to the headrest of the chair. Their design is based on the feed-forward control system. Microphones are placed throughout the room and receive sound waves that send out reference signals, generating signals that make loudspeakers start the cancelling noise.
The scientists tested out how many microphones should be used throughout the room in a classroom. they also performed computer simulations to see where the error microphones should be placed on the chair. The microphone should be placed in a certain position where the head will be, so a dummy head with a sound level monitor was placed in the chair to test this. The chair was effective at cancelling noises of frequencies ranging from 200 to 800 Hz, and the typical hearing range of a human is 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Noises created by things like electric motors, fans or other machines have very predictable frequencies which made it easier to design the chair. The chair can also cancel random noises about 1 kHz, however the chair couldn’t cancel random noise below 300 Hz.
These chairs could be very important when looking to improve productivity in a work environment. Some minor modifications to increase the level of noise cancellation could be made, but the idea itself is very strong.
It would be a great benefit for people who are distracted by the chair noise. However, it is hard to keep the object that can move regarding to person’s weight who is sitting is hard. In order to keep the chair quite from the noise can be done with continuous care. I hope in the future, there is a chair that would completely cancel the noise covering all the complex. I hope if we can use the magnetic field well, we would able to come out with the chair with no noise.
https://sciworthy.com/scientists-design-an-office-chair-that-cancels-noise/
I really like this post because I can relate to this post. Distraction is a big problem I have and chairs could be distracting. In one of my classes, there are chairs that have wheels and I see kids playing with the chairs during class that make noise which is distracting; not to mention is tempting to play with the chairs too. Silence is the key to success when it comes to independent work. Distraction is a big problem in today’s society. There are people that have 30 minute assignments but it takes them 2 hours to do because they can’t stop looking at their phone or couldn’t resist checking their emails or tweets (etc). I feel like a lot of people have this problem including myself. I sometimes get off topic and look at my phone and after I look at it I realized that a lot of time has past. This had to do with the chairs because there are distractions everywhere; especially in this computer age that we live in. Also, I had this rocking chair in my room when I was growing up and I felt it was distracting so I always did my homework in the kitchen where there were stools that didn’t make noise or weren’t distracting. Chairs could be a distraction so I love the idea of silent chairs.
References:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/silence-key-success-jemisudhaka
https://psychcentral.com/blog/distraction-a-serious-problem-of-modern-life/