The increasing population and the expansion of cities have posed many challenges in urban life. One of the major problems faced by people living in cities, especially close to busy roads and airports is the intrusive noise that doesn’t let them relax peacefully. This affects their mental health and increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. This is what the Delft startup DeNoize intends to resolve with its smart window technology.
Funding from UNIIQ
Delft-based DeNoize raised €200k investment from UNIIQ, which is a €22M investment fund focused on the proof-of-concept phase. This fund helps entrepreneurs in West Holland bring their unique innovation to market faster. With this investment, DeNoize will be able to develop and validate its active noise cancellation technology for homes and offices. For UNIIQ, this investment lets it expand the Delft portfolio. The funding was announced digitally by Hassan Charaf, Head of Innovation at Royal Schiphol Group.
According to the company, it aims to implement the first prototype of its smart window with active noise cancellation in collaboration with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, among others. DeNoize windows will become commercially available in 2022.
Aman Jindal, DeNoize CEO says, “The UNIIQ investment allows us to gather strong technical and market validation for DeNoize. This will enable us to implement our system in a real-life pilot by 2022. Until then, the technology needs to be developed further, which is why we’re happy to raise the investment at this stage.”
Mitigates outdoor noise by 90%
According to a study cited by the startup, there are over a million people in the Netherlands affected by outdoor noise. Among them, a few hundred thousands of inhabitants encounter severe sleep trouble, thereby resulting in approximately 800 directly related cases of heart disease.
While there are measures such as double glazed windows and noise barriers, these are effective only in mitigating mid-to-high frequencies. Still, the most troublesome low-frequency noise remains unresolved. This is where DeNoize aims to fill the gap by developing smart windows with active noise cancellation that cancel up to 90 per cent of the outdoor noise, claims the company.
Established in 2018 by Aman Jindal and Olivier Schevin, DeNoize claims to work with the mission to tackle the problem of noise pollution and offer a healthier living environment. Its smart windows can sense, filter, and amplify certain outdoor sounds so that building occupants can hear sounds such as birds, rainfall, etc. so that they are connected with the outside world acoustically.
DeNoize’s technology makes windows more resilient against the outdoor noise. It works on the principle of counter vibrating the glass in order to cancel the outdoor noise. The technology predicts the glass vibrations and mirrors the movements, thereby reducing noise levels drastically.
