All
  • All
  • Products
  • Articles
  • Videos
  • Galleries
  • Conversations
  • Social

Bubble Sound Barrier

i-Beam's Bubble Sound Barrier Concept Brought to Life at E3
sound blocking

The Future Is Now: i-Beam's Bubble Barrier Comes to Life

I was cleaning up my iPhoto library the other day and came across a photo I took at E3 that features a familiar-looking contraption.
by

I was cleaning up my iPhoto library the other day and came across a photo I took at E3 that features a familiar-looking contraption. The bubble on the right isolates sound so you can hear music (or in this case, games) in a noisy room. Look familiar? It's a look-alike to the i-Beam Bubble Sound Barrier that I featured a few months back, except instead of keeping sounds in like the i-Beam does, this one amplifies whatever is underneath it for better hearing.

I love it when I see concept items in the real world. It makes me realize how quickly we're moving forward in technology and innovation. I gotta be honest with you, though, there are a few more concept items on my hot list that I'd like to see made into real working products. I suppose it's only a matter of time.

I-Beam Bubble Sound Barrier Blocks Out Office Noise
workspace

The New Cube Farm: I-Beam's Bubble Sound Barrier

Here at Sugar HQ, we don't have the typical cube farm that you'd find in other office buildings, but we do get a lot of noise.
by

Here at Sugar HQ, we don't have the typical cube farm that you'd find in other office buildings, but we do get a lot of noise. Not only from the traffic in downtown San Francisco, but from the various street musicians that play outside. So these Bubble Sound Barriers from design firm I-Beam — which provide not only a barrier from outside noise, but keep your music inside your own parameter — would be really, really awesome. I can only take so many hours of bagpipes and jazz flutes in the afternoon.

Of course, the Bubble Sound Barrier may not be completely practical — they hang from the ceiling or attach to a wall with a movable arm — but they are totally retro-chic, and seem like they are straight from a designer in the late '50s trying to predict what offices would look like in the future. The only things missing are the robots.