Cheap soundproof latex tiles can silence noisy neighbours

London, Feb 23 (ANI): Fed up of the noise in your neighbourhood? Well, soundproof solution is now possible in the shape of novel tiles made from latex and a few plastic buttons.

Zhiyu Yang at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Kowloon and his team have developed soundproof panels made of latex and plastic buttons that can block out all the sound.

These noise-cancelling panels consist of a latex rubber membrane stretched over a 3-millimetre-thick rigid plastic grid of 1-centimetre-wide squares. In the middle of each square is a small, weighted, plastic button.

When sound waves hit the panel, the membrane and weighted buttons resonate at difference frequencies.

"The inner part of the membrane vibrates in opposite phase to the outer region," New Scientist quoted Yang as saying.

That means the sound waves cancel each other out and no sound gets through.

Each weighted membrane only cancels out sound waves within a small band of frequencies. But changing the weight of the buttons alters the operational frequency, says Yang.

By stacking five membranes together, each tuned to a specific band, you can create a soundproof panel that works in the range from 70 to 550 hertz.

By stacking five membranes, each tuned to a specific band, you an create a soundproof panel

Yang says that with these panels you can soundproof homes. (ANI)