The sleek, high-tech silencer, called the Mute, uses technology created for use in hearing aids. It sends a signal via a wireless connection to two little “buds”, which users stick in their ears.

All they have to do is point the remote at anything and it will filter out the sound coming from it.

The Mute, which is still in development, was created for the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) to help people with hearing difficulties to screen out background noise that can interfere with their understanding of the spoken word. But its creators soon recognised that its applications could be far wider.

Chris Vanstone, of Human Beans, the design consultancy behind the Mute, said: “We wanted to create a product that could help everyone to manage the noise around them. The world is getting noisier all the time. It is twice as loud now as 50 years ago.”

He said that the Mute would come into its own in, say, a noisy pub or an office with a digger outside.

Neil Thomas, of the RNID, said that the Mute works by “sampling”, or recording, the sound that the user wants to screen out so that it can identify the shape of the sound wave. “It then inverts the sampled signal and plays it upside down over the noise that is coming in and they cancel each other out.”

Directional microphones enable the remote control to pinpoint individual sources of sound.

Mr Thomas said he hoped that a major electronics company would take up the idea and manufacture the product.

The Mute is one of several futuristic hearing aids that have been designed for the RNID’s HearWear collection, which was developed with the design magazine Blueprint and the brand consultancy Wolff Olins.

Another, which already exists in prototype, is the Goldfish, also designed by Human Beans. This consists of two buds placed in the ears that can record and store up to ten seconds of sound.

“If you miss a word or a phrase that someone has just said, you just tap your ear and the Goldfish replays the last ten seconds of conversation,” Mr Vanstone said.

“I’ve tried it out and it’s very useful for people like me who are very forgetful, although it is a rather surreal experience.”

Mr Thomas said that the HearWear range had been developed in an attempt to do for hearing aids what fashion designers had done for spectacles.

“Years ago glasses were regarded as something you got on NHS prescription and there was very little choice. They were not cool or sexy. Now, glasses have become a fashion item and a style statement and many people wear them even if they have perfect vision.

“In contrast, the design of hearing aids has changed little over the years and they still have very negative connotations with disability.

“We are trying to show the massive potential for industry to create stylish and desirable hearing products which, if they were available on the high street, millions of people would want to use,” Mr Thomas said.

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