DESIGN MIAMI 2011
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2011
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2011
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2011
There's one of those perennial Manhattan potholes outside my window that's been there since the Koch administration, and every summer--when I sleep with the windows open--I debate whether I can somehow repair the damn thing by myself. Every time a newspaper delivery truck hits this pothole at two in the morning, the resultant KA-KLANG-KA-KLANG is enough to wake up everyone in my building.
Adaptive Sound Technologies' Ecotones "sound therapy system" was supposedly designed for problems like these. The bedside device spits out soothing noises--wind, babbling brooks, the tides, etc.--and even claims to be able to detect sudden and extra-loud noises, which it masks by ramping up the waves or what have you.
It sounds too good to be true, though The Times gave it a positive review. At $299 it ain't cheap, but with summer coming up, I'll have to compare the price with the cost of asphalt and a steamroller rental.
Comments
I think it would be more interesting if they had a speaker with city sounds for those of us who live in suburbia. I could always just burn a CD i suppose.
you could keep putting a traffic cone in it until they fix it.
maybe just fix that pothole
definitely sounds like a clever and useful device.
but why don't they some noise canceling instead of playing "pleasant noises"? I though sennheiser even had headphones that could do that...
I think it's a brilliant idea - if it works, of course. I'd much rather listen to something pleasant like waves or a babbling brook than the local motorbike idiot who seems to think it's clever to rev up his infernal machine at any time of the day or night. I don't have the option of fixing HIM with some asphalt, though the steamroller sounds rather tempting ... ;-)