DOZENS of vibrating buttons dotted around cars could give passengers a quieter ride. Attached to components around the vehicle, the coin-sized buttons will cancel out the vibrations that cause much of the noise inside a typical car.
Each button contains an accelerometer that detects the vibration frequency of the component it is attached to, plus a controller unit and a piezoelectric actuator. Software algorithms built into the controller calculate the frequency necessary to dampen the vibration. The controller then applies a voltage of this frequency to the actuator.
A research team, led by Arthur Berkhoff at the Dutch research organisation TNO, has already built the sensor and actuator. The next step is to miniaturise the circuitry without it overheating.
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