Unpopular opinion incoming: there’s cool stuff brewing in the world. Microbots might one day mend spinal cords, a petri dish of brain cells can already play video games, and now the prospect of a new wonder: according to a New Yorker article on misophonia (the condition where unwanted noise triggers disproportionate, unpleasant cognitive and physiological reactions), a team of miracle workers are “using machine learning to develop headphones that … can quickly target and eliminate irksome audio”.

Now we’re talking! This project, led by Shyam Gollakota of the University of Washington’s Mobile Intelligence Lab, aims to develop headphones that selectively filter out triggering noises, leaving or enhancing the good sounds. Gollakota offers the example of sitting on a park bench, oblivious to loud talkers next to you but able to hear birdsong.

Imagine the potential – I’m thinking Nobel peace prize. Ridiculous? Maybe, but one study showed a correlation between noise exposure levels and aggression; another of the area around Frankfurt airport found “a 1 decibel increase in average noise levels raises the violent crime rate by 1.6%”. I’m a........

© The Guardian