How do you weigh the need for privacy and relative quiet against letting sunlight in? It used to be a trade off. Now researchers from Swiss company Empa and award-winning designer Annette Douglas have created a lightweight, translucent curtain five times more effective at absorbing sound than traditional ones.

Working with Empa acousticians, who developed a mathematical model of a fabric, Douglas brought in silk weavers from Weisbrod-Zurrer AG to manufacture fabric samples to test and optimize the acoustic properties of the material. Then these were translated into effective weaving techniques that incorporated flammability and translucent characteristics. When refined, tests revealed that these innovative translucent curtains absorbed up to five times more sound than conventional curtains!

These high quality curtains let the sunlight through while maintaining privacy, making them perfect for homes, offices, restaurants, hotel lobbies, seminar rooms and auditoriums. Word is they’re getting wildly popular as they make their way to market. Now if they’re affordable, they’ll make a really attractive noise-canceling solution.