Noctua’s noise cancelling fan prototype demonstrated on video

Towards the end of last month, we reported that famed computer fan manufacturer, Noctua, would be debuting a noise cancelling PC fan prototype at Computex and sure enough they did. The specs are pretty much like what we described the last time, which consists of a microphone, a metal band around the frame and a signal processor. The noise cancellation feature was developed by Rotosub whereby the microphone captures the sound emitted by the fan, which is then fed into the signal processor where the noise is analyzed, which will then toggle the magnets built into the tips of the fan’s blades.

The prototype that was used is none other than Noctua’s NF-F12 fan and according to the company, there’s still about 12-18 months worth of development left before it is ready for the masses. The company is planning to improve the airflow and the fan speed without affecting the noise level. No word on pricing just yet but Noctua expects the fan to cost double that of their current $20-$25 models.

If you watch the demonstration video above, you’ll realize that the microphone and the signal processor are external devices. Noctua estimates that they will need another 2-3 years before they can integrate all of that into the fan itself, but until then it seems likely that they will be building the microphone and signal processor into their own brand of heatsinks. With an estimated release by the end of 2013, we still have a long way to go so until then, check out the demonstration video above.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Computers