Skoda develops a bicycle bell that penetrates noise cancellation to announce its presence.
Automaker Skoda has developed a bicycle bell called ' DuoBell .' The DuoBell can emit sounds of irregular frequencies, making it possible to make its presence known even to pedestrians wearing noise-canceling headphones.
Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that outsmarts even smart headphones - Škoda Storyboard
Škoda DuoBell - The First Bike Bell Designed To Penetrate Noise-Cancelling Headphones - YouTube
According to Skoda, as demand for bicycles increases worldwide, so do collisions between bicycles and pedestrians. Skoda cites the widespread use of noise-canceling earphones as one of the causes of the increase in accidents, and has developed the DuoBell, which emits 'non-noise-canceling sounds,' to prevent such accidents.
This is what the DuoBell looks like. The color scheme and surface finish use the same design system as Skoda cars.
It has a built-in hammer and bell that produce sound, allowing it to make two different sounds.
One of the two types of sound is 'sound at frequencies that are difficult to cancel out.' Skoda, in collaboration with the University of Salford in the UK, has discovered that sounds between 750 and 780 Hz are difficult to cancel out. The DuoBell is tuned to emit a sound at 780 Hz.
Another type of sound is 'high-speed and irregular sound.' Noise-canceling earphones cancel out noise by emitting sounds with the opposite phase to the surrounding sounds. DuoBell bypasses noise cancellation by emitting sounds that are too high-speed and irregular for the earphone's processing chip to handle.
DuoBell was reportedly tested in London in February 2026 with delivery drivers for the food delivery service 'Deliveroo,' and demonstrated that it could effectively make its presence known to pedestrians wearing noise-canceling earphones from a distance of 22 meters.
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