Noise-canceling window sensor helps you enjoy the silence amid cacophony

Sono is a noise-cancelling gadget that can selectively convert a specific annoying background noise into a more pleasant sound, such as birds chirping.

The cacophony of any city's hammering jack hammers, beeping buses, and relentlessly yacking citizens can make anyone long for an oasis of silence. Enter the Sono, a futuristic noise-canceling gadget that sticks on the window and turns even the noisiest of rooms into a chill place to think. The pebble-shaped device, a finalist in a prestigious design competition, serves as a reminder of the power of quiet.

"From time to time, I just want to escape the noisy world for a while to reset my mind," Rudolf Stefanich, an industrial designer who created the Sono device while a graduate student at the University of Vienna in Austria, told NBC News in an email. The gadget was selected as a top-20 finalist for the annual James Dyson Award. The famous designer will hand pick and announce a winner on Nov. 7.

Stefanich recently moved to Shanghai to take a job with Designaffaris, an international design and strategy company. Inspiration for Sono came while he was working in a large office where meeting rooms were enclosed with glass doors that looked great, but failed to contain any noise. "I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if you had a volume knob on that glass to simply turn down the volume," he said. 

The Sono device sticks to the window where it senses the noise vibrations on the glass surface. It uses this information to generate a signal that cancels out the vibrations, similar to the way the noise-canceling headphones some travelers wear to drown out the droning conversations of their fellow passengers.

Sono can turn the sound of a barking dog into a tweeting bird.

The major advance comes from the digital sound processing technology that "allows for more complex functions like selective noise cancelling or sound event detection," he explained. "For example, you could detect the sound of your neighbor's dog barking, cancel out that specific sound and replace it with with a bird's tweet."

Yes, Sono can selectively turn the grating yips of that annoying ankle biter into more soothing sounds.

The gadget's battery can be recharged the old-fashioned way via plugging it in to the grid, but it gets extra battery power by harvesting energy from the electromagnetic noise in the surrounding environment, such as Wi-Fi signals. That technology, Stefanich noted, is currently being developed at Nokia Research Center and may soon be a standard feature in many electronic gadgets.

Stefanich is currently looking for a partner and funding to complete the engineering for the device and usher it toward commercial production. To see the vision, check out the video below.

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Eye contact makes you less likely to win an argument, probably because it's creepy

Forget what you learned in Public Speaking 101: Eye contact may actually dissuade your audience from your argument, says a new study in Psychological Science.

In the study, participants watched videos of speakers expressing controversial opinions, and were told to focus on either the orators' mouths or eyes. The results: People were less likely to shift their opinions when the speakers made direct eye contact.

Researchers say if you're skeptical, excessive eye contact makes you less inclined to change your mind, unless you already agree with the speaker to begin with. How come? The researchers speculate that eye contact sends different messages -- trust in friendly situations, but competition or hostility in others. (Pull up a chair. The way you arrange seating during meetings can persuade your audience to agree with your ideas. Discover how to Persuade Your Colleagues and Clients With This Trick.)

Beyond that, "staring directly into someone's eyes without looking away is unnatural," says non-verbal behavior expert Marc Salem, Ph.D.

Instead, exude non-threatening, natural confidence to get your way. It starts with your posture, Salem says. Sit or stand in a way that's open and similar to those around you -- for example, if your boss is leaning back in your chair, you should do the same. Don't rush your words, either; when you speak too quickly, your body doesn't know what to do with itself, and you end up looking awkward, Salem says.

Finally, put your phone down. Even in a casual setting, speaking while holding a device (or anything at all, like a pen) in your hand will make you seem closed off, says Salem. (Freaking out before your big presentation? Don't sweat it. Reframing the way you look at stress may improve your performance.

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Humans and Rats Think Alike After Making Mistakes

When it comes to learning from mistakes, humans and rats think alike, research suggests.

In a study that tracked how humans and their rodent cousins adapted to errors during a time estimation task, the two species showed similar brain activity in the medial frontal cortex (MFC), which sends signals that synchronize neurons in the part of the brain that controls movement.

The findings suggest rats could serve as models for studying human adaptive control, the process of modifying choices based on experience. This knowledge could be useful in treating psychiatric diseases, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and schizophrenia, the researchers say. [Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]

"With this rat model of adaptive control, we are now able to examine if novel drugs or other treatment procedures boost the integrity of this system," study researcher James Cavanagh, now a psychology professor at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, said in a statement.

Lesions to the MFC in humans and other animals are known to cause impaired performance in tasks that require learning from mistakes, such as a false start in a race. But the mechanism for how MFC achieved this control wasn't known.

Cavanagh and his colleagues at Brown and Yale Universities measured the brainwaves of rats and humans as both performed a task that involved estimating time in response to a cue.

The researchers saw an increase in low-frequency brainwaves in the MFC of rats and humans after they made errors during the task. The brain activity in this area was synchronized with activity in the motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls muscle movement.

When the scientists used drugs to inactivate the MFC in the rats, the animals were worse at learning from their mistakes on the task, and their MFC brainwaves were less in sync with the motor cortex.

The results, detailed today (Oct. 20) in the journal Nature Neuroscience, "describe a new mechanism for behavioral adaptation through low-frequency oscillations," the authors write. The findings suggest rodents could be a good model for testing new drugs or brain stimulation treatments for diseases involving problems with adaptive control, they add.

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Good News for the iPhone at Verizon

With lots of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) followers panicking about the success of Apple's new iPhones (for no good reason, in my opinion) investors are looking for any source of comfort. Apple won't report its quarterly earnings until Oct. 28, so we won't get the full story on iPhone sales until then.

The iPhone 5S is Apple's new high-end model. Photo: Apple.

Fortunately for worried Apple investors,Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) provided some good news in its quarterly earnings report on Thursday. Of the 7.6 million smartphones activated by Verizon in the third quarter, 51% were iPhones.

This implies that Verizon sold approximately 3.9 million iPhones in the quarter. That's a very strong number, and it suggests Apple will post a massive year-over-year increase in iPhone shipments for the three-month period that ended in September.

A big playerAs the largest wireless carrier in Apple's largest market, Verizon is a key partner for Apple. (AT&T still has the most iPhone users, though, due to its position as the original U.S. iPhone carrier.) In the first half of this year, roughly 11% of all worldwide iPhone activations were on the Verizon network.

Verizon is becoming even more important to Apple over time. The iPhone has been gradually gaining share from Android and BlackBerry devices at Verizon, while Verizon has been winning market share away from AT&T. In last year's quarter ending in September, the iPhone accounted for 46% of all smartphone sales at Verizon, but this year the iPhone's share increased to 51%. This helped drive Verizon's iPhone activations up by roughly 25% year over year, from 3.1 million to 3.9 million.

What does it mean for Apple?Since Verizon's share of worldwide iPhone activations has been fairly stable recently, it is possible to use Verizon's sales numbers to get a rough estimate of how many iPhones Apple sold last quarter. As noted above, in the first two quarters of 2013, Verizon activated 11% of all iPhones sold worldwide. In last year's quarter that closed in September, Verizon had a 12% share.

There are a few factors that could impact Verizon's share of total iPhone activations this quarter. First, as noted before, Verizon has been gaining share within the U.S. mobile market, and the iPhone has been gaining share within Verizon. These factors would tend to increase Verizon's share of worldwide iPhone activations.

On the other hand, this year Apple for the first time launched its new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c handsets in China at the same time as the U.S. This means that a higher percentage of Apple's iPhone sales may have come from international markets last quarter compared to a year ago. That would reduce Verizon's share of worldwide iPhone sales.

The iPhone 5C. Photo: Apple.

Overall, these two factors should balance each other out and Verizon's 3.9 million iPhones will likely represent 11%-12% of worldwide iPhone sales for last quarter. That implies that Apple may have sold 32 million-35 million iPhones last quarter, which would be 20%-30% higher than the 26.9 million sold in last year's corresponding three-month period. Anything in that range would be a great result, especially since Apple did not release a lower-margin "cheap" iPhone to gain market share.

Foolish conclusionIt's important to remember that there are a lot of moving parts involved in Apple's quarterly iPhone sales tally. For instance, it's possible that Verizon had a better initial supply of the new iPhones this year compared to last year. Therefore, investors shouldn't assume that a 25% increase at Verizon translates directly to a 25% increase in worldwide iPhone sales.

Nevertheless, Verizon's strong iPhone activation numbers -- combined with Apple's big opening weekend sales tally -- should make investors comfortable that Apple sold plenty of iPhones last quarter. Since the iPhone is responsible for the majority of Apple's revenue and profit, this bodes well for the company's quarterly earnings. There's no need to worry about Apple: It's doing just fine!

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Nokia Lumia 1520 release date nears: How will it do in USA market?

Within a few days it is going to be out as Nokia Lumia 1520 release date nears. Many wonder how the phablet will do in USA market?

Finnish mobile giant Nokia’s forthcoming phablet Lumia 1520 is going to get a good response in US market and elsewhere too. The smartphone maker is all set to launch a huge 6-inch handset with all the top trappings of any other phablet from top smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and Sony. with the exception of Apple almost all the top smartphone makers have launched a few phablets. This includes Sony, HTC, LG and of course Samsung. In many markets in Asia and even Europe huge handsets are in great demand and every smartphone manufacturer has his own handset in this genre.

Nokia Lumia 1520 that comes with top of the line specifications and features is definitely going to be a big threat to the other phablets including market leader Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z Ultra and many others. There is no doubt that Nokia despite starting late is beginning to catch up with the entrenched market leaders in both smartphone and phablet markets. It is going to be the first 1080p smartphone running Windows Phone. We have already seen several images and screenshots of the device, and it is now to go official on October 22 in Nokia World to be taken place in Abdu Dhabi. Unofficial sources claim that the device is a 6-incher, and it touts a 20MP rear camera and a 3390mAh battery.

The handset will not just be coming with FullHD display it will also come with very powerful processor. Under the cover, the fabled Lumia 1520 will feature a solid quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, at least 2GB of RAM and other quality specs. It will be running on the Windows Phone 8’s upcoming GDR 3 update. Plus, it will have Nokia Glance Background on board. Nokia might be targeting the new Lumia 1520 as a stiff rival against the key Android phablets out there. Majorly we have three high-end phablets out in stores; Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z Ultra and HTC One Max. The Windows Phone 8 running Lumia 1520 will surely act as a strong alternative to all these models.

The demand for the phablet will be quite high as it comes with great specifications and good features. Nokia is seemingly all set to launch the Lumia 1520 at its upcoming media event. Alongside the 1520, the company will also apparently roll out its new Lumia 525 budget model upgrade, a longtime rumored Lumia Tablet, a “Lumia” laptop and a set of Asha phones. The tech world is crazily in waiting for the forthcoming Nokia media event.

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