The SpeechJammer brings conversations to a halt faster than a speeding bullet
There’s no talking allowed at the theatre, in class, or during presentations, but that doesn’t stop some people from blabbering at the wrong time. This will.
Two Japanese researchers have solved the age-old problem of getting inconsiderate talkers to be quiet. Using knowledge of the way humans communicate and how feedback affects that process, Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada created a speech-jamming device that makes it incredibly difficult to speak. It’s so hard that the device can stop a person in mid-sentence.
Humans have extreme difficulty speaking when their words are played back on a delay. When someone hears his or her own words fractions of a second after being spoken, they become disoriented and have a tough time forming new sentences. Knowing this, Kurihara and Tsukada developed a system that includes a microphone and a speaker that can be used to prevent talking. When the microphone picks up someone’s speech, the speaker plays it back with a 0.2 second delay, putting words on hold.
The “SpeechJammer” disturbs the communication process using Delayed Auditory Feedback. Because the directional microphone focuses on one person’s speech and then interrupts his or her process without providing physical discomfort, it can be an effective way to shut down people speaking at inappropriate moments. How practical a way SpeechJammer can be is another story.
Kurihara and Tsukada developed SpeechJammer for research purposes, not to have it in stores in two weeks. And given the size of the SpeechJammer, it’s not exactly something that you can carry with you whenever someone speaks out of turn. But with this preliminary study based on a prototype, the information can be used to develop something that does work in the real world. Libraries could have systems that jam the loud study group, or perhaps theaters could jam talkative attendees. Unfortunately, as you can see in the demo video below, SpeechJammer could also have the negative effect of being used by the audience to interrupt performers or lecturers.
There are obvious downsides to this system and it may prove more trouble than it’s actually worth. After all, you don’t need a science project to simply turn around and be ask someone to be quiet. But if people are already going to inconsiderately talk when others reasonably expect silence, the right situation just might call for a jamming device.
Source: Technology Review, Kazutaka Kurihara
Too late guys, you have never met my daughter, she is “the” speech jammer, talks faster than the speed of light, interrupts all the time, and you cant concentrate when she is in the room, or have a decent conversation for that matter. Point and fact, the only reason I can type this post is because she is sleeping. peace…..and quiet.
Can we say bullshit? I have device that can stop people from speech too. It’s called a knife. All you have to do is pull some out someone’s tongue and slice. Problem solved.
Of course this device will never find it’s way into the arsenal of anti freedom of speech regimes.
dont worry, the government/military will find a good use for it….now if only the government/military could find a thought control device….
Could be used to disrupt political meetings etc if they could get the size down
Since there is no such thing as a truly directional microphone, and having the speaker so close to the end of the hyper-cardioid microphone shown, the sound emanating from the speaker would cause a feedback loop into the microphone, rendering the thing unusable. Are you sure this story wasn’t supposed to be released until April 1?
Where can I get one of these. What a simple Idea thatis well implimented!
I personally find this ironic. In my personal experience asians are the loudest in restaurants, Buses and especially Libraries. I suppose its a cultural difference….this is not a racist comment. Only what I have observed over the years.
And which country were these Asians you speak of from? I’d bet you couldn’t tell a Japanese from a Korean. Japanese people are very quiet people
This is somewhat ironic, I thought that those who stutter/stammer use delayed auditory feedback to HELP them speak…
Wow! this is phenomonal! This could literally stop noise pollution!
Of any kind!
A Mack truck isn’t going to listen to it man
This is so fake… Why is this being posted as a real thing?