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CALGARY — It was a warm summer night and Mark Nesdoly was putting his infant daughter into her crib. The windows were wide open and the baby was finally off to sleep.

Then he heard it.

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His neighbour was driving a Japanese motorcycle around, stuck screaming in first gear. No sooner had Mr. Nesdoly let go of his little girl than her eyes popped open.

“It’s not possible to convey the frustration unless you’ve been in that situation. That really annoyed me,” he said.

“To be honest, the first thing that popped into my head wasn’t the Noise Snare. It was thoughts of violence.”

For Mr. Nesdoly, then an electrical engineering professor at the University of Saskatchewan, the second idea was a device that would allow police to find and fine noisy vehicles, from over-throttled motorcycles, to modified mufflers and hyped sound systems.