David Swanson from Penn State University has developed a security system called APIDS – acoustic perimeter intrusion detection system. The system uses wires connected to geophones. When the wires are disturbed, the vibrations in the wires are analyzed by a computer to determine if the vibration is caused by an intruder or a false alarm such as wind, rain drops or a bird sitting on the wire.
Read more on the Washington Post web site.
Visit the Penn State graduate program in acoustics site.
The 10th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, will be held in Stockholm, Sweden between 7-10 July 2003. The conference organisers have extended the deadline for submission of abstracts to 1st February, 2003. Currently there are over 200 abstracts that have been submitted and the titles can be viewed here.
Read more on the ICSV10 web site.
There are often new additions to this web site, apart from the news items on the front page. I have added a link What’s New that is accessed from the menus under Departments.
Ellula Sounds has developed inflatable loudspeaker enclosures. They are intended for portable laptop or MP3 players. Models include 10W RMS desk speakers and a 35W RMS subwoofer.
It is well known that the acoustics in the Australian icon, the Sydney Opera House, is often criticized. A major program has begun to analyze the acoustics by Arup Acoustics. Ove Arup were the original structural engineers of the building.
Read more on the Sydney Morning Herald web site. Read the Arup web site on the Sydney Opera House, and the media release.
Emerson Process Management has a large collection of condition monitoring related application notes available online. Topics include bearing vibration analysis, data acquisition, balancing, oil analysis, thermography, and many more.
Sound Pharmaceuticals are developing a drug that can protect against hearing loss. Otoprotection drug trials have been conducted on animals and have shown success. Two of four potential drugs already have been approved for human use to treat other diseases. In addition, they are also examining the regeneration of auditory hair cells.
Endevco and National Instruments are developing plug-and-play sensors. The sensors have in-built low-cost memory chip that contains information about the transducer stored in the Transducer Electronic Data Sheets (TEDS). Information such as calibration data will be automatically read by a signal conditioner or analyzer, thereby eliminating calibration errors. The TEDS format conforms to the IEEE standard P1451.4, which was in part developed by National Instruments.
Read more on the Endevco web site.
Sony have released a new active-noise cancellation ear-bud style headphones, model MDR-NC11. When the unit is switched on noise is reduced by 10dB. The specs on the website say that it cancels noise from 50Hz to 1,000 Hz, with a maximum of 10dB noise cancellation in the critical range from 100 to 400 Hz – where the human ear is super-sensitive.
Read more on the SonyStyle web site and search for MDR-NC11. Watch the shockwave flash advert for noise cancellation products.
Elsevier Science has bought out Academic press, and transferring ownership of journals and online services. The IDEALAlert service (email notification of table of contents) is also ceasing on December 31, 2002. To receive free alerts about IDEAL journals (Journal of Sound and Vibration, Digital Signal Processing, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, Journal of Fluids and Structures, and others), by signing up for:
– ScienceDirect alerts, available for all the over 1,700 journals
on the platform, and accessible at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/alerts.
– ContentsDirect, providing alerts for Elsevier Science journals
and books, and accessible at http://contentsdirect.elsevier.com/.