Technology

what they did :

"Our product takes in a full blow of air and separates it," said team member Leen Alfaoury. "Some of that air comes out as it is, and part of it comes out shifted. The combination of these two sections of the air makes the blower less noisy."

Adds Chacon: "It ultimately dampens the sound as it leaves, but it keeps all that force, which is the beauty of it."

Their design cuts the most shrill and annoying frequencies by about 12 decibels, which all but removes them, making them 94% quieter.

Dyson gets shit on frequently for being overpriced, but the audible analysis they do one some of their products is crazy complex. Some years ago I watched 30 minute video on the design they did for the hair dryer where they were designing minute angles in the fins of the air impeller, and using a PWM algorithm to measure backpressure in a feed back loop to spin up the fan where it wouldn't create loud noise while also increasing the volume of air moved. They tuned the mechanisms specifically to shave off tiny peaks in oscilloscope readings.

One thing I remember is that they said they couldn't entirely eliminate the specific annoying sound frequencies because it had to ramp, but what they did is ramp to right below the annoying sound frequency level, then hold, then burst above the annoying frequency band very quickly. So the operator of the unit doesn't hear the annoying sound because the device shoots past it so fast.

I've never heard of any company be that picky and put so much effort into avoiding one negative experience of a product.

It's almost like it's a requirement for every landscaping company to use the most noisy, ear destroying, gas-powered leaf blower that they can buy that can be heard from 2 city blocks over.

Cue right wingers protesting the new "woke" leaf blowers.

For the people not reading the article. This is not about gas leaf blowers.

The challenge was to take an electric leaf blower and make it even quieter.

I forgot that this device is still being used lol. Masovian Voivodeship in Poland banned leaf blowers in 2021 as part of air quality regulation and... air actually got cleaner and no one complains about leaves on sidewalks

https://samorzad.infor.pl/sektor/zadania/srodowisko/6408199,zakaz-uzywania-dmuchawy-do-lisci.html

The sad thing is the students who actually did the work will probably see no financial gain from this. Students pay to take a class and then a company pays the university for access to the students and the students ideas and work is used by a company with no financial benefit to the students. Everyone makes out except the students.

Too bad these innovations wont make it down to the workers that stores hire from 11pm to 3am to clean the store parking lot across from me.

Can I get those STL files? I'm gonna print one for each of my neighbors

Fuck leaf blowers. I don't care if they're quieter. The term here is "polishing a turd." They don't really solve any problems. They're not good at removing debris, but just blowing it to a place where someone else will deal with it.

Also... removing debris on its own is a dubious pursuit, since "debris" could also be termed "stuff that holds moisture longer and slows the effect of drying soil during drought conditions."

Whoever made that title should be launched into a volcano on the moon

....is this not just a muffler/silencer for leaf blowers? Good on these kids! This definitely falls under the 'why didn't I think of that!' category for me.

Too bad no one invented rakes yet.