Two engineering students from George Mason University in Virginia have invented a potentially revolutionary fire extinguisher that uses low-frequency sound waves instead of water, gas or foam.

Demonstrated in the video below, the cylindrical device, smaller than many more traditional fire extinguishers, is held about a foot away from flames and immediately snuffs them out.

"I see this device being applied to a lot of things, first off I think in the kitchen," co-creator Viet Tran said.

"But eventually I'd like to see this applied to swarm robots, where it would be attached to a drone and that would be applied to force fires or even building fires where you wouldn't want to sacrifice human life."

Is this the future of fire fighting? Could Skrillex just point his monitors towards forest fires, actually doing some good in the world for once?

Tran and Seth Robertson now hold a preliminary patent application for the device, which the university is describing as "potentially revolutionary".