I live near a large interstate and the noise produced by it is loud enough that the state has approved a sound barrier to be built. Naturally it will be made out of wood or, if I’m lucky, stone. When the project was announced I couldn’t help fantasizing about some sci-fi membrane barrier type thing that would perfectly cancel noise just like a force field cancels force. To read this article gives me hope that I’m going to live long enough to see such cool tech.
I don’t think active noise cancellation can work like you are hoping. Active noise cancellation works for a target location (your ear’s location) not for a general area. It works by wave superposition cancelling out the wave for the target location. But the waves won’t cancel at any other location.
It can work like that in principle,
if you have several microphones and emitters, though most practical implementations do focus on canceling at a certain point in space, as you mention.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 17.2 ms ] threadI think you want something more like metamaterials that can be put on walls for homes and offices. Like https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/new-material-acts-...