One-Way Sound Walls Proven Possible

disco_tracy writes "Imagine a room where a band is playing. Neighbors can't hear the music, but if someone outside the room is talking, the musicians can hear it. The concept — a kind of one-way mirror for sound — seems imaginary, but two Italian scientists recently pushed this kind of sound manipulating technology closer to reality (abstract)."

Joke Variant Unlocked

[Anonymous Coward]

- "You have a banana in your ear!"

- "I'm sorry, what?"

- "YOU HAVE A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!"

- "I'm sorry, I can't hear you, you're on the wrong side of the wall!"

Re:Really necessary?

[SQLGuru]

This would be material based and not require additional power?

It would be great for those baby-rooms they used to have in movie theaters. The people inside could hear the movie without the audience hearing the screaming kid.

Re:Wave diode applicable to light?

[Garble Snarky]

I believe one-way mirrors are completely dependent on highly disparate levels of light between the two regions. This paper describes a totally different physical mechanism.