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Speech-Jamming Gun Silences From 30 Meters
MrSeb writes "Japanese researchers have created a hand-held gun that can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters (100ft) away. The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop people from speaking — but its second application is a lot more chilling. The researchers were looking for a way to stop 'louder, stronger' voices from saying more than their fair share in conversation. The paper reads: 'We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking. However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately interrupt other people when it is their turn in order to establish their presence rather than achieve more fruitful discussions. Furthermore, some people tend to jeer at speakers to invalidate their speech.' In other words, this speech-jamming gun was built to enforce 'proper' conversations."
Silence, peon. Your must wait your turn. And not yell. If you speak out of turn or too loudly, you will be muted.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
"This is totally ....."
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
And suddenly, an entire generation fell silent...
Schools will want them.
That excerpt reads like a Dolores Umbridge quote.
So, here's the technical implementation:
The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker. This triggers an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you might’ve experienced the same effect if you’ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). According to the researchers, DAF doesn’t cause physical discomfort, but the fact that you’re unable to talk is obviously quite stressful.
What's to prevent someone from simply speaking louder to talk over the "jammer"? Why wouldn't this be the target's first reaction? Wouldn't a delay of 0.2 seconds sound just like an echo?
There's also the fact that this is highly targeted (no shutting up entire audiences) and doesn't actually create "silence", just cacophony.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Conventional firearms have been effective at silencing speakers for centuries. Do we really need this?
If conversation fails, people escalate to violence.
If bigbro wields this against the masses, a riot's going to erupt. Might as well go straight for the teargas and flashbangs.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
According TFA all the "jammer" does is play back a copy of your speech delayed by 0.2 seconds, akin to being annoyed by loud echo on a VoIP phone or Skype conversation. While echo can sometimes be annoying when it interrupts yourself, it is fairly easy to adjust if you've done it before and talk over yourself. Because the gun features both a directional microphone and directional speaker, if you can comfortably talk over yourself everyone else will hear you just fine, sans echo.
Hip! hip! H....
Damn, somehow my ex-wife has become a Japanese researcher?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Keep it on all the time in all places. That way you don't have to fear free speech. On the paper Big brother can easily say, we have best free speech law in the world, but in reality we use this neat little gadget that make sure that no one else other big brother is speaking. How innovative?
I was disappointed to see that it doesn't create some kind of actual interference, but rather just gives them a local echo of themselves and creates a psychological effect. This can easily be overcome with practice. If you've ever announced in a gym or a stadium, you get the same effect and get used to it quickly.
No more get-the-hint loud music, desperate host or shepherds crook. Instead the blubbering ham - sorry , I mean award winning thespian - suddenly goes silent and just looks like a fish gasping for air. In fact , the ceremony could probably be improved vastly if it was switched on 99% of the time.
Instead of calling it the speech-jamming gun, call it a "Mother-In-Law Silencer" or something like that. I know I'd buy one.
The first rule of Speech-Jamming Guns is no one talks about Speech-Jamming Guns! Sheesh.
They pull a gun, I pull a bigger, more boxy looking gun, with two lasers, and surround sound.
Makes me glad I learned sign language.
Just stuff your fingers in your ears and go "You still suck and I'll say whatever I want when I want it and you can't stop me NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!"
Also, the effect isn't that pronounced - I got used to it when one of my daughters kept using her iPhone on speaker and I'd be able to hear everything I said repeated back. It probably only workes on old farts who never had kids and keep going "turn off that damn speakerphone!" It certainly won't work on the current generation for more than a few seconds.
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
Finally a device for Husbands of the world.
The non-talkative will inherit the world. Blabbermouths of the living room when Liverpool FC be gone.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I betcha Harper is going to order a dozen of these for the Canadian Parliament next week!
Watch for a "bulk order" from the US Congress and Senate by month end, too.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
There's a Nobel prize waiting for the person who invents a way to use this over the Internet. Possibly the Nobel Peace Prize itself.
But this invention can be used for good! Just imagine the benefits of having one on hand at political debates and the Academy Awards!
When someone says, "Any fool can see
Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), is a device that enables a user of the device to speak into a microphone and then hear his or her voice in headphones a fraction of a second later. [...]
DAF usage (with a 175 millisecond delay) has been proven to induce mental stress.
-- Wikipedia
Does anybody know how to scream in sign language?
http://xkcd.com/368/
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I'm not Japanese culture expert, but can these usage suggestions be humour on the part of the researchers?
Not detecting humour on an everyday basis is more worrisome than crackpot ideas.
Give each winner 30 seconds then turn on this device and go to commerical. Maybe they'll finally get through the show in under 4 hours.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
FTA: "At a political rally, an audience member could completely lock down Santorum, Romney, Paul, or Obama from speaking. "
well, I'm sure the secret service would notice if you were pointing toaster at POTUS (look at the pic, handheld, yes? inconspicuous? no)
wonder if you could defeat it with a piece of glass like a bigger teleprompter screen (it doesn't use noise cancelling technology) - no mention of how it works in an amplified environment where sound comes real time from multiple directions/sources.
"The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker. This triggers an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you might’ve experienced the same effect if you’ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). "
This would be a fantastic tool to help enforce respectful dialog during discussions/debates.
However, the likelihood that this will be limited to just that, is so low as to require an entirely new not-yet-invented field of mathematics just to calculate the odds.
Wait, so what happens if the target plugs his or her ears? Wouldn't they then get no auditory feedback, allowing them to speak? Seems a bit easy to beat..
Buy her some treakle toffee... you'll have peace whilst she tries to chew through it.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
...isn't worthy of respect or being listened to in the first place.
If I'm ever at a political rally where one of these is used that candidate will never get my vote.
I know American Sign Language and if this technology becomes widespread many others will learn it too!
Imagine learning ASL will become a exercise in free speech and resistance. Who would ever thought that?
They like to hear themselves talk too much.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
You can simply be used to hearing yourself echoing, and some people actually can speak MORE clearly when they feel they're being interrupted (this gun's method was used as a treatment for those who have debilitating problems with stuttering to make the patient think they're being interrupted). Either way, you can easily train yourself to be immune to this gun.
Failing that, just plug a mic into ordinary sound-canceling headphones to create a headset that cancels sound matching your voice so you can hear everything else, and as a fun side effect you'll instinctively speak even louder since you can't hear yourself.
Whenever I heard of Japanese speech-jamming machines I go grab my point-of-view gun.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
... Glasgow trainstation where there are echos from the announcements at all sorts of times delays.
Scotland isn't afraid of silly little echos! We'll toss'em like cabers! MEN.
Have gnu, will travel.
...by playing 'Indian Love Call' by Slim Whitman
Someone in Japan has guns. They'll use that to speak instead.
Typical Japanese.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Want to disrupt some boring political speech?
I am officially gone from
I'm just imagining this thing in a special ops context. How useful would it be to be able to remotely confused the ability of a group of guards to speak to each other without losing focus on the battle at hand?
AJ Henderson
"The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker."
Basically, this messes with your brain, causing you to stop talking. Two very simple techiques for stopping this
1. Put a finger in each ear or cover them with your hands
2. Train yourself to block out the echo. I understand those in the radio industry already do this.
Interesting little research, but not practical.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Can this be scaled up to encompass all of DC? We can install "voting" buttons in everyone's residence and call it the "I'm sick of your bullshit" button. When the majority of the country presses it, DC is silenced for a day.
It probably wouldn't accomplish much, but that's not much different than things are going right now. At least we could stop the flow of noise pollution emanating from DC for a couple for days per year.
It works by confusing the speaker with his own words delayed - so if you can't hear your own words because you are wearing ear muffs you won't become confused.
The device works by replaying your voice with a slight delay. I envision a counter device that will play white noise, or maybe eventually even record your own voice and cancel out the remote delayed voice so that you never hear it.
Imagine a person giving a motivating speech to hundreds or thousands - then all of a sudden blurp bloa bah blah - the crowd looks confused, some erupt in laughter. Instant credibility loss. Who would suspect an attack from an actual weapon?
Hecklers will find it useful.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Please tell us, what government are you speaking of that isn't 100% dependent on guns and the special right to use them as a business model?
Get back to me when it works on management, irrespective of the range.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
"Are we there yet?" "Are we ......
(That's better!)
We have had these in Texas for years, we call them Glock's
Growing up, I always wanted a voice jammer for family parrots when they decided they wanted to screech. I, also, wanted one to use on my sister when she annoyed me. These days, I would love one to use against people being rude and too loud talking on their cells while in shops and while watching a film in a theatre.
"to stop 'loader, stronger' voices from saying more than there fair share in conversation" ....says the introverted scientist
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
You wouldn't be able to listen to anyone else talking, but it wouldn't trigger you to mess up your speech.
The biggest customer for this is obviously married men.
So the countermeasure/defense against this device is one that records what you're saying and then sends it out after a 5 second (or longer) delay, essentially pre-recording what you want to say by a short time. They already use this device at airport gates when they want to make an announcement.
"Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
The dangers of this technology is apparent but I think the intention was a good one. See, the Japanese just wanted to silence famous loudmouth Rush Limbaugh from speaking Japanese. They don't put it past Rush to confuse Japan with China.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I don't know what kind of Constitution they have in Japan, but at least here, this doesn't appear too useful except in private capacity (i.e. non government sanctioned, also including organizations receiving government funds such as public libraries, can't employ this device ...) I find it interesting the article references U.S. in its contemplation of application of the device.
How and when our government can restrict speech has already been covered by a host of legal precedent, and while the government can punish and (sometimes even prohibit) limited types of communication exempt from First Amendment protection (like obscenity, etc. which is considered either not to be speech or to be outside the domain of protection afforded by the First Amendment), it also is prohibited usually from engaging in prior restraint against protected speech, i.e. taking measures to censor forms of protected speech before it has occurred - and such a "speech silencer" is easily construed as prior restraint.
As it stands right now, for restricted speech in the U.S., the government can only impose civil or criminal sanctions AFTER the speech has occurred. That is why civilian audiences in a court room are not ever duct taped at the mouth, though it can be illegal to disrupt the court proceedings by undue vocal utterance.
So in the U.S. public schools, public libraries, unlicensed peaceful assembly on public square (demonstrations with or without permits), etc. and any institutions operating off government money, these are examples where such a device cannot legally be employed. Perhaps the government might TRY but there is overwhelming precedent making that unconstitutional and I'm confident upon judicial review it would summarily be found to have limited legal use.
So relax, paranoid citizen. The government will not silence your speech much with this. Where you MIGHT see this though, private use, such as in movie theaters, air lines, ideological/political "demonstrations" on private property,
Think this would silence a bullhorn, or crowd megaphone? How about barking dogs?
No cone of silence references? Man, I'm old. :-(
for guests on the O'Reilly Factor!
spellcasters...
Same phenomenon :
- for people used to do VoIP over shitty connection with a correspondant lacking echo cancellation (where you get a smiliar delayed echo). The first few days, you might be distrubed by the delayed echo. Afterward you just start ignoring it.
- for people who've learned not to rely on auditory feedback when speaking (like simultaneous speech translators: they use sound blocking earphones to hear to source material, and speak the translation into a sound-proof recording mask, to avoid creating noise interference to other translator in neighbooring booths. Thus they are used to speak without any auditory feedback).
- for deaf or hard-hearing persons who've lost the auditory feedback since long time ago.
They too will be unaffected by this device, just like you probably aren't due to your training with shitty phone links.
The only way to effectively silence a conversation would be using destructive interferrences (playing the conversation back in-sync but with opposite phase, to cancel out the noise).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
We need to remove the "directional speaker" from the system and instead add in an "Audio Spotlight" http://www.holosonics.com/ in its place. That way any people around the "noisy" person do not need to listen to the noisy person NOR the speaker echo system trying to make them stop. The "sound" would litterally be 'all in their head', and not for others to listen to. I heard this spotlight device back in the year 2000, and it was really wild listneing to music in your head that others next to you could not hear. You could litterally put voices in somebodys head and play with their mind with this thing.
You need to take an extra second before you speak (to plan out or memorize your sentence), but then you just say the whole thing instead of relying on audible feedback.
So Germans are naturally imune to this disruption :-D
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I remember reading an article a few years ago called "Conversational Ballgames" by an english-speaking woman who became fluent in Japanese while in residence there. She describes her difficulty fitting in to conversation patterns even after she was "fluent" until she learned that social expectations of the conversation differed across cultures. She compares western-style conversation to volleyball or tennis, a match where you bat back and forth the same ball with a partner -- whereas Japanese conversation reflects more a game of bowling. She explains the game:
"A Japanese-style conversation, however, is not at all like tennis or volleyball, it’s like bowling. You wait for your turn, and you always know your place in line. It depends on such things as whether you are older or younger, a close friend or a relative stranger to the previous speaker, in a senior or junior position, and so on.
The first thing is to wait for your turn, patiently and politely. When your moment comes, you step up to the starting line with your bowling ball, and carefully bowl it. Everyone else stands back, making sounds of polite encouragement. Everyone waits until your ball has reached the end of the lane, and watches to see if it knocks down all the pins, or only some of them, or none of them. Then there is a pause, while everyone registers your score.
Then, after everyone is sure that you are done, the next person in line steps up to the same startling line, with a different ball. He doesn’t return your ball. There is no back and forth at all. And there is always a suitable pause between turns. There is no rush, no impatience."
Here's a link to the essay: http://books.google.com/books?id=EhAYIyaeuz8C&pg=PA454&lpg=PA454#v=onepage&q&f=false
The reasoning given by the researchers for the need to silence someone (while still chilling) comes into context for me when I think of them trying to harmonize a game of bowling. I can see them pointing their silence gun at rowdy american-like bowlers butting into the lane when it isn't their turn, distracting the bowler on deck, and scooping the ball off the lane before it reaches the pins!
STFU or I'll shoot you....
I fear that me and my kind will be targetted by this
This would be great for implementing a progressive stack, which is, like, the opposite of silencing people.
Hearing your own voice with a slight delay won't confuse people any more. Bad cell phone interconnects and VoIP with failed echo suppressors produce that effect all the time. Today it just makes people talk louder.
(Sometimes I think ISDN did telephony right. Rigid timing, no compression, full duplex, digital end to end. ISDN voice never caught on in the US, but it's widely deployed in parts of Europe.)
earplugs would negate this device, as would a bit of training to learn to ignore the delayed "feedback."
Are the principles behind this only known to the incredibly advanced race of Aliens from Planet Xorg? No. Are the components of this device only available to government agencies with their massive budgets? No. Are the physics behind its function an alchemical secret, wrapped in allusion and allegory, plain to only a select few Initiates? No.
Like the LRAD cannon, drones, tasers, and other means governments have recently employed to silence opposition to their policies, there is nearly equal access to the same means among the disgruntled. It will not be long, months if not days, for the disgruntled to turn the weapons of the enemy against itself. And there are so many more of the disgruntled, with greater resolve, than there are among the government's forces.
Imagine an array of targeted audience members with smart phones, w/ speakers, running the same app timed precisely such that they can warp the effect back upon the smart ass gov shill pointing this gun at them. Imagine the shill running from the stage with his/her/its hands over its ears, ears bleeding.
That app doesn't exist, yet, but it's technically possible and achievable with current hardware and tech.
The governments' days of silencing discord are over. Their days of steamrolling the people are over. Their information-control and physical means to compel compliance are running down to zero rapidly.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
what good is a phone call when you can't speak
Also, would $2 earplugs be the countermeasure?
all you would have to do is plug your ears
Can this be adapted to work with a telephone to silence telemarketers and political calls?
reminds me of a short story.
A professor in a pub tells a story about a student that doesn't pay attention to details in class. This student builds a sound canceling box... He puts it in a concert hall on a performance night. The crowd erupts into applause and there is nothing but silence. The professor explains that the student forgot that energy could not be created or destroyed. The sound had to go somewhere. So this little box was not just canceling the sound, it was "absorbing" it. The box explodes...
Fiction of course but I remember really liking the stories because they always had some different perspective. I read the book years ago and can't remember the title or author?
Indeed
A way for someone to get a word in on a Bill O'Reilly interview.
Excellent! Just in time for election-year debates.
Moderator: No, Senator, your time really is over.
Senator: Marg garbele gabble gabbblarp!
If it can be used on Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly, I can only see this invention as a positive for mankind.
I wonder if I can use this to stop my wife's snoring. :-)
Could you just plug your ears while you speak? I think this could block the annoying feedback and allow you to continue speaking.
Does it work on girlfriends? Where can I get one?
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Why all the bad press about this technology.
I can see some good use with this technology with more research of course. I may go too far but think about the good use. You could impliment this technology in homes, appartement to cut the noise level. Lots of people are complaining in apparments and homes because tenants are too loud (sex ?, yelling at kids ?). With this, no more noise complaints. Same thing with houses, impliment a similar device near your home to cut the traffic noise, this way your home value won't go down. I know lots of houses looses value because of traffic noise.
Noise pollution is not something to avoid or underestimate, this is a big in cities. Lots of cities are building big walls near highway to cut the noise. With more research I guess this could be used and could save some millions and probably lots of structure maintenance since it could be a small (smaller than those walls anyway).
"What good is a phone call, Mr Anderson, if you are unable to speak?"
MMMM!!!!! mmm!!!! MMMM!!!
... the person they are trying to quiet is also carrying one of these and points it at somebody pointing one at him? Would it not create an ever-escalating volume of noise, akin to microphone feedback?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It sounds like a conservative gun-nut's dream...Use the 2nd Amendment to violate the 1st Amendment from up to 30ft away.
Speech Jammer? Just a few words to calculate it's worth: Mother in-law
Many science museums have an exhibit that does much the same thing. You wear headphones that feed your speech back to you with a delay. What is unique about this device is the apparent ability to send the delayed sound in a focused beam over a substantial distance.
Any nerd who has tried one of the museum exhibits this has surely also learned to defeat it. It takes a bit of concentration, but in very few tries you can talk while ignoring what your are hearing. Perhaps not as fluently, but it is possible.
Nonetheless, this invention can be - and will be - misused to silence political speech.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
...anybody know a deaf person that wants to make some side cash by attending political rallies with me? The pay will be commensurate with their auditory deficit. Wait, scratch that -- just found my Sennheiser buds with the active noise canx.
n/t
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I don't need this gun, I have a bag full of sshhh, with your name on it...
In the greatest invention since ear-plugs department...
From TFA:
"...an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you might’ve experienced the same effect if you’ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). According to the researchers, DAF doesn’t cause physical discomfort, but the fact that you’re unable to talk is obviously quite stressful."
I thought it did something neat like send out sound cancelling vibrations that actually stopped the sound from traveling through air but this gadget actually relies on a psychological reaction to hearing your own voice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_Auditory_Feedback). Might work on nice polite Japanese people, not sure it would work on people who just don't care or who care enough about what they're saying to tolerate the 'stress' of the audio feedback. It also doesn't seem very difficult to get around to me...a decent set of earplugs should do it.
Failing that, if this does actually work I'm sure someone could come up with a voice jamming jammer :-) /facepalm
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
I was going to make a post in all caps poking fun at this but apparently Slashdot already implements similar technology.
against spellcasters!
I read TFA and there seems to be a really easy workaround, and politicians making speeches can easily utilize it.
The speaker can simply block their ears. The gun works by sending the speaker's audio back to them with a delay.
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
When I was a little kid there was a show called "Get Smart".. it was in syndication but I watched it after supper. When I was 18 years old I designed gadgets. One gadget had a microphone, amplfied what it picked up and inverted the signal 180 degrees. I used an OpAMP to invert the signal, and also there was a potentiometer in the circuit so I can vary the signal phase. If you pointed a speaker connected the amp to the sound source that the microphone was pointing to you can cancel out most of the sound. I used a horned loudspeaker.. kind of like a megaphone. microphone was mounted below the speaker. OK so it looked kind of like a sound canceling gun. I made a lot of crazy gadgets when I was a kid. I also made a remote controlled fire alarm so if you are cooking and the alarm goes you can hit the remote and disable the alarm for 10 minutes.
So the idea is that someone in an audience is going to point this thing that looks like a hand-held mini missile launcher at a politician and silence them. How are they aiming this device? Oh, a laser pointer. Like you might find on a rifle.
If you happen to be by this person I suggest you move before the real guns with their laser sights start firing.
The article uses a technique to basically cause discomfort for a person trying to speak, by creating an audio feedback directed at them. They point out that it is similar to the annoying experience of hearing yourself during a skype (or conference call) which can disrupt your chain of thought.
The goal is to silence someone who is speaking to establish presence rather than contribute ideas.
In my experience what this does is disrupt the ability to keep track of what you are saying, but for someone who is speaking to hear their own voice (as we say idiomatically) this is entirely counter-productive. Furthermore a person who is a good speaker learns to concentrate through this. Anyone who has ever spoken in a hall where there is large enough space to create an audio delay, has heard their voice come back to them. Basically you learn to filter it out.
I am not saying it isn't annoying. I am saying that anyone who has a prepared statement can easily bypass it and anyone who is just ranting without concern for making sense, can do so. It is only someone who is actually trying to think about what they are saying, that will have some hardship.
This is pretty much the technically equivalent of someone echoing you (which siblings do).
I hope they got lots of money to develop this.
if what i say is copyrighted, and they play it back without my consent, can i sue? or better yet just use music then get the RIAA involved. they seem to have a lot of lawyers.
When I first read the headlines I thought it was some amazing technology, but then after reading it, I saw it was merely a psychological trick. It would only affect you momentarily while you gather your wits, and even less time now that you know they've made a 'gun' to do just this.
When they create a gun to do this , then we'll be really onto silencing people.
Oh, I love the consensus bunnies!
Silence the stronger, louder voices!
Let everyone's solution to the math problem have its time on the board-- no matter how whacked!
Let a thousand flowers bloom! The oppression of those who are more correct, must end!
Equal turns for all, even if it means putting weights on the strong, and silencing the eloquent!
Silencio
I did some of the football announcements while in high school. We had to learn to ignore our own voice. I did suggest ear plugs, but was told it wasn't hard to learn to ignore the PA system echos. And he was right. Just a little practice and you no longer hear it. So for people like me, this device will be ineffective. If it gets used widely, I suspect its effectiveness will, over time, wear off.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Every bloody time I watch one, there's always the one idiot the moderator has to argue with for hours that his turn is up.
Would be so much easier just to go "Time's up!" *zap*
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
This seems like a great tool to make a debate opponent screw up.
I understand that's a way of 'amplifying' speech without (enough?) equipment
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Sweet Jesus. TFA itself makes it very clear exactly what this is, and yet STILL has the same stupid, overblown reaction as this thread. All the gun does is beam a slightly delayed copy of your own words back at you, so if you try to start talking out of turn, you will have the urge to not speak. Should you wish to continue being a loud jackass, for example when you are telling the kid from the mailroom how great Ron Paul is with such effort as to shake pieces of Rice-Krispie treat from your neckbeard, you can of course power through the discomfort, or plug your ears, which you do anyway. This is not a silence spell, it simply makes it more difficult to speak when it is not appropriate for you to be speaking, with nothing other than a lingering feeling of discomfort. And it can be circumvented by wearing earplugs. Any totalitarian government trying to mobilize this for nefarious purposes will be sorely disappointed
this invention will piss women off around the world but the best part is we won't hear them moan!
...they could combine it with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note
For being so rude as to attempt to speak while you were interrupting.
Just...pretend...that...you..ARE..Shatner. Or speak. Like someone. Reading autocue.
by our choice.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Can somebody please attach this device to the teleprompter of current occupier of the White House? As a public favour.
The natives used a stick to determine who talks. Leave it to those industrious (nerdy?) japanese to rely on some electronic gadgetry. ;)
Anyone who watched the House debates on SOPA would appreciate this in keeping the representatives in line when attempting to make points during their 5 minutes.
This clip if of a radio presenter trying to speak when this effect is applied, its quite astounding:
http://radiofail.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/dj-in-delayed-headphones-fail/
For those of us in the US the right to free speech could be abridged with this. The Republicans have tried "Free Speech Zones", Throwing people out, limiting who is allowed at a venue, but at the same time delivering hecklers to town hall meetings. It seems someone wants it both ways.
The obvious next step in the arms race is a speech jammer jammer. Which could use active sound suppression like the noise canceling headphones. Where my patent application, its here somewhere.
Then there are those boorish churls who insist on loud-mouthing at meetings when they have not been given the floor or when their speaking time is up.
This technological stop on irritating, boorish, anti-social yapping is exactly what I suspect many people have been waiting for. Highly recommended!
I could use something like this to silence the neighbors barking dogs and the sound of the "big foot" stomping around upstairs.
Come on someone. Let me start you off:
In Soviet Russia the (_____) (_____)s you.
Choices: govt, guns, silence, KGB, mafia, etc...
The way most Russians talk (animated, loud, etc...) is sometimes sounds like a screaming and fighting. Does that make it right to use the gun on anyone you feel like?
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
It would be great for silencing a couple of blowhard rightwing nutcases at the coffee shop every morning.
Best way yet to shorten THOSE speeches.
"First off, I would like the thank the academy...."
Will it work for that lady who got hit with a court order because she was too loud during sex, causing the neighbors to complain. Or does general moaning and screaming get past it?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
It's a very effective "annoyer" or "hassler", but it's not effective in the face of moderate effort to overcome it.
Yet another tool in the arsenal of the Handicapper General.
(Obligatory reference to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Harrison Bergeron .)
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
I have a speech-jamming fist that is effective from 1.5 meters. Cost nothing in R&D or O&M and it is very effective.
How long would it take to learn to talk through this kind of interference? People learn how to talk over others' interruptions so, with practice, I reckon it should be possible to overcome this device.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
A godsend for this administration
law will make it a felony to point it at an official, while if you are off the street it's open hunting season.
People should condsider this an invisible attack on your physical body.
Doesn't Skype and AT&T sometimes have this feature built in already?
I'm willing to bet that this device has the same fatal flaw of most electronics, water... I'm thinking that throwing water at this device could render it useless pretty quick....
I always thought a .357 could accomplish this already...Just displaying it causes people to shut the F up.
We can effectively stop the nonsense from being uttered by backwards, Bible-thumping, anti-technology politicians. We just need to make sure those with half a brain in the heads bring these to the various Republican conventions and use them EXCEPT when Ron Paul speaks. Maybe, then his voice and superior intellect will be heard by even the most backwards of Americans.
Yes...I am NOT a Republican...but would consider Ron Paul.
Every couple needs one of these
If it's about annoying the speaker... just fire off Lady Gaga's latest hit directed at the speaker.
All the husbands will buy this for that peaceful time at home :)
If only this was developed 13 years ago when Chavez took over in Venezuela...
Bullshit.
Seriously? The invention is about some Hollywood-cliché Asian "loss of face" thing?
How about this instead: Some researchers experimented with a technology for the sake of discovery, and in doing so, listed potential applications that reflect the researchers' own brainstorming, and not necessarily the opinions or ideas of "the Japanese" (who, I wager, were most definitely not consulted in the matter).
It's a more reasonable scenario than people developing technology expressly to combat "unspeakable loss of status".
(Incidentally, why is Mr Akusake shouting so much, anyway? Maybe he's demanding to know how he got that un-Japanese name. : )
Taking a quick look around the web, I find that I can buy many different makes and models for under $50. Problem solved.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Especially for people who just "love" to hear themselves talk, won't this device actually "amplify" their own voice and take pleasure in hearing their own voices... besides, people like that barely listen to anything anyways, to implement this in US style town hall meeting, that thing better have a bullet.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Just to silence all the trolls? Please?
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker. This triggers an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you might’ve experienced the same effect if you’ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). According to the researchers, DAF doesn’t cause physical discomfort, but the fact that you’re unable to talk is obviously quite stressful.
Yes, I've experienced this phenomenon, and yes, it's amazing just how badly it affects one's speech... for a while. Just one hour per week fighting with one's own echo for a few months, and one gets used to it, which would most probably imply immunity to the speech-jamming gun.
This would never work on me - I Skype too much to be deterred by my own echoes...
Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought of that when they read the description.
Program Intellivision!
Also Captain Marvel... Possibly a weapon against Justin Bieber.
american idiot
The gun has two purposes, according to the researchers: At its most basic, this gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces to stop people from speaking â"
Which is perhaps the single weirdest sentence I've ever read on Slashdot.
The gun works by listening in with a directional microphone, and then, after a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, playing it back with a directional speaker. This triggers an effect that psychologists call Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt your speech (you mightâ(TM)ve experienced the same effect if youâ(TM)ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program). According to the researchers, DAF doesnâ(TM)t cause physical discomfort...
Privacy issues aside, as a practical matter the DAF effect can be neutralized with training. What the "gun" does is replay your words back at you with a short delay.
One can quickly get used to speaking through this kind of interference. While it's confusing for common speech, delay is frequently intentionally used in musical contexts. With a delay and a microphone, you can practice talking over yourself until you're used to the interference. It doesn't take long at all to get to the point where DAF will not interrupt your speech..
And since they're blasting a directed audio signal at you, earplugs would reduce or eliminate the effect of the DAF.
Surely a regular gun can be used to accomplish all of these same things.
If you don't shut up, I'll shut you up!
Imagine what parents would pay for such a device. I would have forked over a least a months pay...
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All cows eat grass!
I want this for my next anniversary gift. I wonder if we can give them in advance this year...
Actually I just wanted to see what it would be like to post on the internet.