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Clockwork Noise Canceling Headphones

For when you need to concentrate.
  (+9, -1)(+9, -1)
(+9, -1)
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I, being a mechanical engineering student, love all things mechanical. I am fascinated by gears, sprockets, widgets and whatsits (See my website for proof). I am enthralled by siting and listening to the sound of a watch or clock ticking and nothing else.

I propose a wind up set of noise canceling headphones. The headphones would contain a small rotary generator hooked up to a mechanical watch or clock movement. Simply wind up the movement to power the noise canceling circuitry. The movement is open to the ear so the listener gets the pleasant ticking without all the background noise. There is a separate movement for each ear, so the user gets a stereo impression, but the movements are linked to a stop mechanism on the connecting bridge to start them at the same time so there is not an odd beating between the two movements. Another version has several escapements with different periods so the listener gets the illusion of being in a room filled with old mechanical clocks.

These would help me concentrate on homework and I imagine would be very conducive to half-baking.

bleh, Oct 20 2007

kinda like what 4whom is describing Double_20Pendulum_2...0Array_20Instrument
[bleh, Oct 24 2007]

[link]






       //This device would induce madness. //   

       Maybe it would for you. It'd induce a calm serenity for me.
bleh, Oct 22 2007
  

       i would like the opposite of this device for sleeping around clockworks.
k_sra, Oct 22 2007
  

       So, you'd like regular noise canceling headphones?
bleh, Oct 22 2007
  

       Genius!
Asbestos, Oct 22 2007
  

       //So, you'd like regular noise canceling headphones?//   

       yeah, i guess so. sounds so lame when you put it that way.
k_sra, Oct 22 2007
  

       //This device would induce madness.// [marked-for-tagline]
hidden truths, Oct 22 2007
  

       "What's so special about the cheesemakers?"
4whom, Oct 22 2007
  

       [4whom] -your anno's are always so damned cryptic. what the hell does that mean?
bleh, Oct 22 2007
  

       Well, I think you are referring to repetitive, calming tones of all descriptions. Not just "cheesemakers".
4whom, Oct 22 2007
  

       Ah, I see. I really was only thinking of the clockwork clicks and clacks though.
bleh, Oct 22 2007
  

       Fishbone. Just the thought of having something constantly ticking right next to both my ears makes me want to punch somebody... or climb walls, a less anti-social alternative. And I'm not such a fan of headphones either.
PauloSargaco, Oct 24 2007
  

       I understand your aversion to this [paulo], but have you ever been in a clock repair shop? Are you mechanically inclined? I now work in a Jewelry shop, and we take our watch and clock repairs to a clock repair shop, whose walls are filled with vintage clocks ticking. It's really very pleasant, as long as you're not there at the top of the hour.   

       I find few things more calming than a stereo cacophony of ticking machines in my ears. I think the single movement version would get old pretty quick, but the complex patterns created by ticks of different periods is extremely interesting to me. When I worked in a music store, we used to turn all the metronomes on the digital pianos on at once and set them to different times. The complexity was fascinating to me (however annoying it was to the piano teachers).
bleh, Oct 24 2007
  

       bleh, your target market is small and should be on some form of medication. Make the idea cancel ambient noise and introduce a calming tone of <insert calming tone here>. I myself, as you do, err on the side of repetitive tones. Others might like wind chimes or klaxons.
4whom, Oct 24 2007
  

       Yes, but that's baked by a pair of noise canceling headphones and a <insert calming tone CD in your CD player or add to iPod>   

       The Idea here is for the actual generation of the clockwork tones to be within the headphones. And for said generation of tones to also generate power to run a small noise canceling circuit.   

       I suppose this could be expanded to other calming tones. Piezo laced wind chimes contained within the headphones which shake with your movements. I don't know.   

       I just like clocks. To me, a recording would be insufficient to get the calming effect. The whole thing thats calming about it to me is the complex patterns which are scarcely repeatable, especially with the inaccuracies of mechanical clocks and watches. Each time it began, there would be a unique pattern of ticks and tocks that would be endlessly interesting. After time wearing them, the movements with faster periods would begin to wind down and slow, adding to the complexity.
bleh, Oct 24 2007
  

       Tick followed tock followed tick...
Jinbish, Oct 24 2007
  

       ahhhh, seiko kinetic anechoic!
4whom, Oct 24 2007
  

       //ahhhh, seiko kinetic anechoic! //   

       Not self winding, but I think you're getting it.
bleh, Oct 24 2007
  

       I still think you could hammer different length tubes, or oscillate a pendulum through a theremin type device, thus not restricted to mechanical sounds.
4whom, Oct 24 2007
  

       True, but the size of that mechanism would be limiting. The tube would be small and thus painfully high pitched, and the pendulum through the theremin would be all over the place anytime you moved your head.   

       These are good ideas but would be better served in a stand alone unit into which you plug in your headphones (noise canceling of course). A unit like my double pendulum laser array instrument. <linky>
bleh, Oct 24 2007
  

       Frequency modulation could be powered by the same wind up mechanism as proposed, and the same people that enjoyed the wind chimes might enjoy the semi-randomisation of a semi-directed device through the theremin.
4whom, Oct 24 2007
  

       I can see this working with <shudder> piezo triggers on the escapements of the clock work. Then a small processor could select the tones. The mechanical generation of the rhythms would be preserved, but the tone could be selected. I fear, however, that these new and improved headphones would require outside power for the tone generating module.
bleh, Oct 25 2007
  
      
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