Sound baffle

The earliest published scientific design of a noise barrier may have occurred in Santa Clara County, California in 1970 for a section of the Foothill Expressway in Los Altos, California.

[citation needed] The county used a computer model to predict the effects of sound propagation from roadways, with variables consisting of vehicle speed, ratio of trucks to automobiles, road surface type, roadway geometrics, micro-meteorology and the design of proposed soundwalls.

Since the early 1900s, scientists have been aware of the utility of certain types of interior coatings or baffles to improve the acoustics of concert halls, theaters, conference rooms and other spaces where sound quality is important.

By the mid-1950s, Bolt, Beranek and Newman and a few other U.S. research organizations were developing technology to address sound quality's design challenges.

Baffles are also found in the exhaust pipes of vehicles, particularly motorcycles.