On 15 April 2016, the great and the good of the acoustics world gathered at the Royal Society in London to discuss the future of research into acoustics. It was a fascinating conference and I'd like to share some of the nuggets of information I took away with me:
1. The design of new cars is being increasingly influenced by mobile phones and the need for connectivity
2. There is a correlation between the quality of the audio on YouTube videos and the number of views (sound is important!)
3. Despite the image quality of modern TVs increasing at a rapid pace, most people still only use their TV's stereo speakers - stereo being a technology from the 1930s!
4. Noise will be a key consideration in the design of future mega-cities
5. Acoustics is currently being used to detect IEDs and even to clean things
6. Hump-back whales generate a ring of bubbles around shawls of fish to form an acoustic 'net', which disorientates the fish so that the whale can strike
7. There are currently over £100M of acoustics-related research projects underway
8. Noise generated by aircraft has reduced by 35 dB since 1990
9. Every £1 spent on research generates £10 for the economy
10. Danny Boyle is quoted as saying that 70-80% of the movie experience is sound