Wear This Plastic Ball on Your Head So You Can Enjoy Some Peace and Quiet

By John Farrier in Gadgets, Hacks & Mods on May 11, 2010 at 5:48 pm

Design student Elaine McLuskey noticed that it’s hard to talk to someone in a noisy bar without shouting — which just makes the noise problem even worse. So she invented the “social sphere” a plastic ball that you can wear on your head. It allows to talk in public to someone similarly equipped:

Miss McLuskey said: “My research found that in some cases a person’s environment can be more disabling than a hearing impairment and so, in some respects, we are all hearing impaired on a daily basis.

“The obvious example is that frustrating situation of trying to catch up with a friend in a busy bar. You want to hear their news and have a proper chat, but you have to shout over the din of music, chatter and clinking glasses.

Link via GearFuse | Photo: BBC

Tags: Elaine McLuskey

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Jared
May 11th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Looks familiar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1eUIK9CihA
dutchboy
May 11th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
You wouldnt wear them at the beach.
nachete
May 11th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
I think it is good for the rain, you don’t have to hold the umbrella. But for nothing else.
Muzition
May 11th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
“Design student Elaine McLuskey noticed that it’s hard to talk to someone in a noisy bar without shouting” — yeah, I think you’d have to be pretty drunk before you’d wear one of those things.
Sleestak
May 11th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
“Chief, regulations require we use the Cone of Silence.”
Tyson
May 11th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Too noisy in the bar and really need to catch up with that friend?
Why would you ever just pick up and go somewhere quiet when you could wear a bubble on your head!

Seriously?
Foreigner1
May 12th, 2010 at 12:11 am
And so in a noisy bar or club or industrial environment you should wear this clear plastic ball with space-gate like openings to connect to similar spheres…? Plastic spheres around your head??? This lovely student clearly has done a lot of thinking (Not)about the accoustic properties of lexan, perspex or other clear plastics since they all have the effect of reflecting any sound once it has come within the sphere. These plastics all resonate to soundwaves, so any sound will sound somewhat deformed and then multiply reflected. Yep- real “quiet” in there- so much noise in fact that one cannot even here oneself thinking anymore…
Snowmami
May 12th, 2010 at 4:35 am
Its easier just to plug the ear of the person your talking to. Works great in a noisy club every time
Evilbeagle
May 12th, 2010 at 5:45 am
More like, “Wear This Plastic Ball On Your Head and Guarantee That You Never Have Sex Again”
kim
May 12th, 2010 at 11:14 am
There is something obsurdly upside/down in this thinking process. Did Jim Carey invent this?
Kalel
May 12th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
Great idea, but just step it up a notch, and enter the club rolling in a gigantic hamster ball.
Fran
May 12th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
@Kalel: hahahahaha
T Herling
May 12th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Looks more like the “Portable Cone of Silence.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcKHBgZ_QKU
wow
May 12th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
stupid is as stupid does…
Richard Lawson
Aug 11th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Nah, it looks daft. We just need a wireless microphone-earphone setup, like motor cyclists use.

Or stay out of deafening environments…

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