According to the item at the link below, the "technology of soundscaping" may soon make it possible for office workers to conduct their work in "pools of silence" analogous to pools of light shed by desk lamps. Researchers at Napier University in Edinburgh and elsewhere are attempting to develop software "to predict noises and create nullifying soundwaves." The finished product could be installed in each worker's cube, allowing the worker to modulate ambient noise, screening out office chatter, clattering computer peripherals, the sounds of doors slamming, dogs barking, traffic and much else. Microphones would intercept the offending sound before it reached human ears and automatically screen it out. Not to pun, but this "sounds" almost too good to be true...

"Silence on the way at the push of a button" from The Australian