Experts develop 'cloak of silence'
Experts develop 'cloak of silence'
2008-06-13Newsfeed
Researchers in Spain say they can develop a cloak that can hide an object from noise by diverting sound waves around its wearer.
Researchers in Spain say they can develop a cloak that can hide an object from noise by diverting sound waves around its wearer.
The research, published in the New Journal of Physics (NJP), focuses on metamaterials that are defined by their unusual man-made cellular structure. The study builds on recent theoretical research which has sought ways to produce materials that can hide objects from sound, sight and x-rays.
Daniel Torrent and José Sánchez-Dehesa from the Wave Phenomena Group, Department of Electronics Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, outlined their theories in the study entitled Acoustic cloaking in two dimensions: a feasible approach.
The Spanish research team calculated how metamaterials using sonic crystals, solid cylinders in a periodic array that can scatter sound waves, could create a multilayered structure to divert sound completely around an object.
José Sánchez-Dehesa, one of the lead researchers, writes: "We hope that this proposal will motivate future experimental work demonstrating the materials' performance."
The material could be used on warships to avoid sonar which picks up on the noise that ships emit. It could also solve more domestic issues such as directing noise away from problem spots in concert halls or even as a way to deal with noisy neighbours.
Copyright © The Press Association 2008
