This smart patch is going to end snoring forever

Forget a well-aimed pillow to the face - Silent Partner claims to have a far more sophisticated solution for sleep-ruining plague that is heavy snoring.

Built like a tech-filled nasal plaster, by attaching the Silent Partner to their nose the wearer is sealed in a "silent zone". 

It might sound like the stuff of dreams, but the device employs active noise cancellation to dampen the sound of the snores.

Sensors in the components either side of the nose pick up the amplitude and frequency of the disturbing sound wave coming from snorer. It then broadcasts a sound wave with an inverted phase. "Based on the physics phenomena of destructive interference," explains the Silent Partner's crowdfunding page, "the two waves line up, essentially cancelling out each other's sound."

Anyone who's worn active noise cancelling headphones will be familiar with the effectiveness of the technology: headphones pick up background noises with microphones and playing the wearer an inverted phase the cancels out persistent background tones like traffic or other commuters asking you to "turn it down a bit".

Currently amassing funds on Indiegogo, Silent Partner has smashed its original target and is now sitting on some $392,040 (£272,579) of pledged funds - impressive, given no one has actually tried the device out to see if it works.

Available for around £20, you'll have to wait until November before you can stick one on your face and test the results.

Until then, best keep a set of sheets by the sofa bed, just in case.