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A federal appeals court in the USA (9th Circuit Court of Appeals) has rejected the Bush administration request to exempt the US Navy training activities using active sonar from environmental laws. This decision follows from a lower court that set conditions in an effort to protect whales and dolphins from the active sonar.

Read more on the LA times web site.

Sony have released a new type of headphone that has a separate bass 'duct', a tube that is inserted into the ear canal, and external speakers for the mid- and high- frequencies. The PFR-V1 headphones will be available for retail sale in the US in April. The reason for doing this is to provide a more natural sound rather than the 'in the head' sound from most headphones. Images of the headphones can be viewed on Sony's Japan web site.

Another interesting year is in store for 2008 with some great conferences in acoustics in vibrations around the globe. For a list of conferences, see the Calendar for 2008 Conferences.

This web site was hacked again recently. It appears that someone did some sql injections into the forums. I've shutdown the forums as they were not widely used. I've also changed the hosting of the web site. Let me know if you spot any problems.

A UK company has released a CD containing pre-recorded road noises that when played back through a car stereo should excite the rattles in a car, which will help in locating these annoyances. See the Rattle Buster web site.

A new Bluetooth mobile phone headset is now available that uses the vibration from facial bones and a microphone to reduce background noise. See the Jawbone headset website for more information.

Mitsui Engineering has developed a water tank with multiple actuators that can form a standing wave pattern in the shape of letters.

For the Mitsui press release see here (In Japanese), and for their brochure see here.

Ulf Sanberg and Jerzy Ejsmont have released a new reference book covering all the aspects of tyre and road noise. The cost is $US230 or $E190 and is available from Informex web site.

The new Nikon S7c camera has inbuilt vibration reduction to help take shaper pictures. An angular velocity sensor is used with in built image processing software to reduce blurry pictures.

For more information see the Nikon press release.

A company called AADcontrol have a 'new' technology to reduce the vibration of towers on 1MW turbines, called 'Active Aerodynamic Damping'.

Prof Fastl and Prof Zwicker have released an updated version of their popular 1999 book on psychoacoustics called Psychoacoustics: Facts and Models . This book is a "must have" for those interested in psychoacoustics.

VIP Sensors have released a new accelerometer calibrator, Model 5900. The vibration amplitude is adjustable from 0.02 g to 2 g at 100 Hz using the internal generator, or 50Hz to 2 KHz using an external oscillator.

Perpetuum, a UK based company have released a product for energy 'harvesting' from vibrating machinery. The PMG7 generator outputs at much as 5 mW at 3.3V from a vibration level of 100 mg.

Another company RLW has used this principle in a wireless vibration condition-monitoring product.

Bruel and Kjaer have released a new instrument called the Human Vibration Analyzer Type 4447.

Bruel and Kjaer, MSC (Material Sciences Corporation), and Link Engineering have built a new testing facility in Canton, Michigan, USA for design and testing of Noise Vibration Harshness issues related to automotive and communications equipment.

Perpetuum have released a device to convert vibration into electricity. The device is capable of generating 5mW of power, which is usually sufficient for powering many wireless transmitters.

See the news release for more information.

Mathematicians at Vanderbilt University have created a mathematical model of the cochlea and use the model to show that the spiral shape acts to enhance the low frequency sounds. The researchers led by Daphne Manoussaki and her colleagues, Richard Chadwick and Emilios Dimitriadis of the National Institutes of Health, published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.

United States Patent Application 20060002568 describes an invention to counter-act the effects of loud bass music that can affect sensors in seats used to detect a passenger sitting in the seat, which is used to measure the weight of the passenger and trigger the appropriate air-bag. The new sensors measures the effect of the music on the sensor and subtracts the music signal, leaving the measurement of the person's weight.

Scientific and Technical Software have released version 2.32 of VNoise, a boundary element method software package that can be used to modelling complex, real life, vibroacoustic industrial problems.

See the STS web site for more information.

After another hacker defaced noiseboard.com, I have upgraded the entire site over the past week. If you find that something is not working, please let me know. The upgrade of the forum from XForum to PNphpBB2 was difficult, but hopefully it should all work.

I've added some new links, new books, I am just about to upload some new Matlab code and the scripts used to convert XForum to PNphpBB2 (pncXF2BB2).

Enjoy!

Noran Engineering announced the release of NEi Nastran V9 finite element software. The improvements are new parabolic shell elements, automated super-element analysis, automated surface contact and weld generation, 3D composites using solid elements, vibration fatigue analysis, combined qualitative-quantitative result assessment, enhanced Nastran editor with automatic report generator.

See the press release for more information.

Benstone Instruments have several hand held dynamic signal analyzers.
- Impaq: 4 channel real time up to 40 kHz BW, Cross channel analysis, with Compact Flash storage.
- Fieldpaq: 2+1 real time analyzer.
- v-Pod II: Simple vibration meter with memory for downloading routes.
- 3524B Ultra low frequency Integrator

See their web site for more information.