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The Mind of an Inventor

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the computer-scrapyard-was-my-preschool dept.

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.

7 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Meaningless Snipits by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Informative
    What if the "meaningless snipits" just happen to have the words "fire", "bankruptcy", "layoffs", "harassment", "pregnant" or "terror" in them?

    Ooh. Now I want one of these. Never mind the rest of it, just that last word and perhaps others like it. Hook it up to your VOIP system and call a likeminded prankster, and leave it running. It'd gum up Echelon something awful :-)

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. ... and we're hiring by yppiz · · Score: 5, Informative
    If you are in the SF area and very well versed in Java, C, or AJAX-like techniques, and looking to work on really interesting problems, let me know. Bonus points if you're a hacker (in the traditional sense).

    --Pat

    1. Re:... and we're hiring by yppiz · · Score: 4, Informative
      I should have mentioned that the we in the parent post is Applied Minds, the company that Danny Hillis co-founded.

      --Pat

  3. How about... by Spencer+Mabrito · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...reading the linked article? It is full of descriptions of amazing things, and indeed does say that Hillis is quite childlike - his inventions are almost toys, very expensive and shiny toys. It's not just Babble.

    --
    --;
  4. Re:Mind of Mentifex by Flamefly · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ignore the links to "True Artificial Intelligence" and "Stumbling upon" which link to Mentifex's web site.
    He is a troll of the AI community. Before you assign him informative mod points for links to his own useless work, please read the following page http://www.nothingisreal.com/mentifex_faq.html

  5. Re:Brilliant by Pyrowolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Go here to see babble... go here to hear babble.

  6. Re:Active noise cancellation anyone?? by Znork · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, there are _very_ effective noise cancellation solutions.

    They're called 'walls', and come in a variety of efficiency levels.

    However, they're probably not 'hip' enough for todays corporate interior designers, and they may not be patentable, which makes this solution a more desireable one for the interested parties.