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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.
kinda like what 4whom is describing
Double_20Pendulum_2...0Array_20Instrument [bleh, Oct 24 2007]
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Annotation:
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//This device would induce madness.
// |
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Maybe it would for you. It'd induce a calm
serenity
for me. |
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i would like the opposite of this device for sleeping around clockworks. |
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So, you'd like regular noise canceling
headphones? |
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//So, you'd like regular noise canceling headphones?// |
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yeah, i guess so. sounds so lame when you put it that way. |
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//This device would induce madness.// [marked-for-tagline] |
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"What's so special about the cheesemakers?" |
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[4whom] -your anno's are always so
damned cryptic. what the hell does that
mean? |
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Well, I think you are referring to repetitive, calming tones of all descriptions. Not just "cheesemakers". |
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Ah, I see. I really was only thinking of the
clockwork clicks and clacks though. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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). |
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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. |
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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> |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Tick followed tock followed tick... |
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ahhhh, seiko kinetic anechoic! |
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//ahhhh, seiko kinetic anechoic!
// |
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Not self winding, but I think you're getting
it. |
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I still think you could hammer different length tubes, or oscillate a pendulum through a theremin type device, thus not restricted to mechanical sounds. |
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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. |
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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> |
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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. |
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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. |
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