Engineers from the University of Washington have developed innovative headphones capable of creating a kind of “bubble of silence” around the user. It blocks all extraneous sounds within a radius of 1 - 2 meters. The headphones are equipped with 6 microphones and an on-board computer, which is controlled by a neural network. Artificial intelligence analyzes the distance to various sound sources, filtering out extraneous noise and amplifying the speech of the interlocutor. This allows the user to focus on the conversation, ignoring distractions. The device will enable close dialogs in noisy places such as restaurants and parties, where background music and conversations often interfere with communication. In the future, the technology could be integrated into wearable devices such as TWS headphones and hearing aids. A team at the university is already working on this possibility