The Mind of an Inventor

kipb writes to tell us that Newsweek has an interesting article about Danny Hillis and the company he co-founded called Applied Minds. One of the featured devices that Hillis talks about is a device designed to increase the amount of privacy one has working in the average corporate cubicle. "Babble" is about the size of a paperback book and plugs into the phone with two external speakers that you place on the top of your cube. While holding a normal conversation on the phone Babble plays back random meaningless snipits of your own voice which makes your conversation practically unintelligible to people as close as 4 feet away.

Comments

What's wrong with a hand operated air raid siren?

[Steven Reddie]

It would also make calls unintelligible within 4 feet.

"I hear voices"

[Anonymous Coward]

Meanwhile Johnson in the next cube has been interpreting the voices as instructions to bring an AK-47 to work and begin the Day of Reckoning.

Great

[SpectreBinary]

So the two morons I am forced to sit next to at work who never get off the phone can broadcast MORE OF THEIR VOICE TO ME.

I'd break down crying if I weren't already burnt out inside.

Oh Excellent

[colonslashslash]

Now, not only do I get to hear my neighbouring co-workers babble incoherent and meaningless nonsense whilst I'm on the phone, but I get to hear my own voice doing the exact same thing!

How is this a good invention?

Re:Brilliant

[Savage-Rabbit]

How about buying a few thousand and hiding them at strategic locations in the meeting places of the US Congress and other world parliaments? Of course it is always possible that nobody would notice since most of what comes out of those places is practically unintelligible anyway.....

Re:Brilliant

[mwvdlee]

My cubicle neighbor's nonsense is annoying enough, and now this device will make me suffer his inate monologues full-time?

How about a device that will play "sh!" everytime his voice is recognized (think Austin Powers 2).

Re:Brilliant

[ozmanjusri]

While holding a normal conversation on the phone Babble plays back random meaningless snipits of your own voice which makes your conversation practically unintelligible to people as close as 4 feet away.

Yes, I believe this device could be a change catalyst which would allow us to re-engineer our business case and leverage best-practice synergies to proactively actualise our bottom-line.