NEC have developed a technology that, they claim, will cut out zoom lens and auto-focus motor noise during video recording. The system uses a microphone and DSP that generates “pseudo-noise” to cancel out background buzzing from the camcorder’s own hardware; the advantage of a predominantly software system is that it can be fitted to even the smallest of point-and-shoot camcorders and video-capable digital cameras.
As well as ongoing, steady noise from hardware, the system is apparently capable of cutting out intermittent or unexpected sounds, such as noise from the cylinder lens or mirrors. In fact it’s even clever enough to take into account the ageing of motors and tweak the “pseudo-noise” accordingly.






Retro-camera addicts may have remembered mutterings of Superheadz’s 




