For anyone that lives in or enjoys visiting UK seaside towns, you will be aware of the noise nuisance generated by Seagulls. Not only do they steal the nation’s favourite fish & chips and fiercely defend their territory, their constant squawking, chirping and wailing creates an unpleasant soundscape for many.
This video gives you an impression of the noise nuisance created by Seagulls. As we are located near the breath-taking North East coastline in Scarborough, this is something that we are all too familiar with. As specialists in the design and manufacture or noise measurement instrumentation, we felt our expertise could develop a solution.
Following months of development by our in-house R&D Team, we are now ready to unveil our Noise Cancelling Seagulls to combat this growing problem.
How Does a Noise Cancelling Seagull Work?
Noise Cancelling Seagulls work very much in the same way as noise cancelling headphones. By utilising active noise control technology, we are able to reduce the unwanted wailing of seagulls by introducing a secondary noise source that is specifically designed to cancel out the first.
We sampled seagulls squawking, chirping and wailing to generate a graph of pressure waves. We were then able to invert this graph to create a anti-noise source, opposite to the original sound. When the two waves are combined together, they cancel each other out. Thus creating a new, much gentler sound.
Once we had a working sample of our anti-noise source, we moved onto final testing. With a sample batch of Seagulls, we fitted 50% with a specialised device containing a miniature microphone and speaker. The microphone would be able to measure the sound generated by the seagull, produce the required anti-noise source and play it back. When these 50% were reunited with the remaining seagulls we were able to observe a noticeable reduction.
Our Noise Cancelling Seagulls will be taking to the skies soon. Stay tuned for further developments.
Or maybe not.
Update
April Fools’ Day! We’re sure we didn’t fool anyone but we hope you enjoyed our light-hearted innovation. No seagulls were harmed during the creation of this jape.
We think Yoda already came up with the perfect solution with his song “SEAGULLS! (Stop It Now)”
Enjoy.
