Cube Privacy Via Gibberish

fury88 writes "CNN is running a story on a new device created by Herman Miller to help with lack of privacy in the cube life. It's apparently a device that will spit out gibberish when you are talking on the phone. You record a few words as instructed by the device and when you are having conversations that may be private, it will spit out sounds that sound like a clone of yourself all talking at once. Frankly I have to think this would be annoying after awhile. As if dealing with your project manager sitting next to you wasn't enough, now you get to hear several versions of your Project Manager talking at once. Talk about insanity!"

Comments

Only for cubes?

[AndroidCat]

Could they make a portable one for people's cell phones? There are some calls that I'd rather not hear even half of. (As Ren and Stimpy would put it, "Repugnant, yet strangely compelling".)

400 bucks?!?

[BushCheney08]

Ahh, yes, $400 is the magic price point -- the price people will pay to try obscure their meaningless conversations. If you're job is so important that it requires privacy like this, they'll probably have put you in an office by now anyways.

Re:400 bucks?!?

[NitsujTPU]

If you're job is so important that it requires privacy like this, they'll probably have put you in an office by now anyways.

I don't know what you consider to be important, but plenty of software engineers work in cubicles while management sits in comfy offices. I once was on a site where engineers who worked on classified information sat in an open room at a big round desk with computers... kind of like a campus computer lab. They certainly seemed to require privacy, but lacked it.

The simple fact of the matter is that most successful companies would probably do what you're talking about. Most companies, however, are run by people who are just ahead of "trying to get by," and populated by engineers who are "just getting by." In those companies, the execs walk around with high powered computer that they don't need, while the engineers work at 5+ year old machines. Certainly, the average programmer needs something better... though this solution IS annoying.

Re:400 bucks?!?

[fmaxwell]

If you're job is so important that it requires privacy like this, they'll probably have put you in an office by now anyways.

Being able to take a private call about a family member who's been in an accident or diagnosed with a grave illness is important. Not having everyone in the office hear you start sobbing when you learn of the death of a parent is important. Having some privacy when your child's school nurse calls is important. People's families are important. Work is just a way to support those families.

There are headphones that cancel noise

[rolfwind]

so couldn't there be speakers that cancel incoming and outgoing noise planted at the edge of cubicles to make a field of silence?

I'm not sure it's feasible, but it'd be a cool idea.

Re:There are headphones that cancel noise

[frdmfghtr]

Imagine some big rectangular pieces of some material that doesn't transfer sound (or does it badly) and place them between cubicles. Ideally those pieces should reach from the floor to the ceiling of the room with you cubicle. Now your privacy should be okay.

Those are called "offices." Some time ago, when you got an office job with a large company, you were assigned one of these "offices" to do your work. They even had these other novel things called "doors" which were like small wall sections on hinges that could be swung in and out of the opening used to go into and out of the "office." Imagine, your own space where the walls extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling, and a door to boot! These were popular in times where one also would frequently work for the same company for a long time and get additional perks such as "health care" and this other neat thing called a "pension" where the company continued to pay part of your salary after you worked for them for thirty or so years and stopped working, called "retirement."

(Yes, that is sarcasm you smell)

If you need and want privacy....

[CastrTroy]

If you need and want privacy, and it's work related, you should probably set up a meeting in a place where you have some privacy. Or use email or instant messaging if that will suffice. Encrypted if necessary. If it's just some family business you don't want spreading around the office, take a little trip away from your cube. If it's taking up too much time and you're worried that your boss won't like you spending so much time from your cube, then maybe you should take a day off to get your private business in order.

Re:Cellphones

[JPriest]

I have found that IM is also great for this. Most of my coworkers and I IM each other stuff rather than say it to avoid world+dog hearing everything we say. Where I can't use IM I try to use email, and when I HAVE to make a personal phone call at work I walk out of the building and use my cell phone.

Just a thought...

[mark-t]

Don't carry on a private conversation with someone while at work in the first place.

But then my sympathy for people that expect the "right" to make or accept personal calls at work in the first place is somewhere in the vicinity of zero anyways.

If the conversation is work-related and still needs to be private, then one has a perfectly legitimate reason to have access to a telephone in a more private area than one's cubicle anyways. If the conversation isn't work related, one just has to bite the bullet and accept the fact that there is no reason why they should be afforded the luxury of increased privacy for such an activity. If they _REALLY_ need increased privacy for a personal call, they can ask their boss to see if he'll allow it. If personal calls are infrequent enough and the reason is legitimate, even if not work-related, they may permit it anyways.