Scientists Create Gun That Physically Stops You From Talking
- Thread starter Mike Kayatta
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Sounds like when you're in a conference call giving a presentation whilst wearing headphones to hear any questions which may come up, and somebody on the other end hasn't switched their microphone off, or taken any means to isolate their microphone from their speakers, meaning you hear your own voice echoed with a half-second delay.
Going by experience of this, something along these lines would work incredibly well at stopping people from being able to speak.
Going by experience of this, something along these lines would work incredibly well at stopping people from being able to speak.
It's a glitch with the human brain. We don't speak well when there's another speaking the same thing just out of unison. We would much prefer to speak in unison or not at all, and when this thing is going, it's saying what you're saying with a delay, so you're going to want to go back, and this goes into a recursive loop, so you end up not talking.Proverbial Jon said:
So it doesn't work on deaf people then? DAMN.
But seriously, I have experienced this exact effect once when I was testing a headset microphone. The mic was playing back my speech right into my ear with a barely perceptible delay, and it really did physically stop me from speaking...
Weirdest feeling.
But seriously, I have experienced this exact effect once when I was testing a headset microphone. The mic was playing back my speech right into my ear with a barely perceptible delay, and it really did physically stop me from speaking...
Weirdest feeling.
I don't quite get it. So it justs repeats what you said back to you? That isn't physically stopping you from speaking. It will be hard to speak sure.Mike Kayatta said:Scientists Create Gun That Physically Stops You From Talking
Doom's BFG makes way for Japan's STFU
If you're like me, by this point in time you've probably already accumulated a long list of people who you wish you could just magically stop from ever speaking again. People like my Uncle Mortimer, that Thomas A. Anderson. [http://www.hark.com/clips/cwyncgxbyb-not-enough-minerals] Well, good news, everyone! A scrappy team of researchers has just designed a weapon that physically stops its victims from speaking, and all of our evil dreams can finally come true (assuming we can get within 100 feet of the loudmouths). Thanks, Japan!
The gun, called the "SpeechJammer" (because everybody knows that hip scientists don't use the spacebar), was developed at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan. And while the effect it produces sounds a bit science-fictiony, the mechanics behind it are actually quite simple to grasp. Basically, when we speak normally (which is to say, without weird futuristic sonic weapons in our face), we don't simply project noise by moving our lips and tongue while pushing out air. That's part of it, sure, but we also use our ears to actively listen to our words to guide our speech. This is part of the reason why deaf people often sound different than those who can hear.
To describe it simply, the SpeechJammer is a speaker and a microphone, both designed to accurately target a small cone of direct sound. As it "listens" to its victim, it quickly projects the words back at him or her with a small delay of two hundred milliseconds, creating what nerds call "Delayed Auditory Feedback," and what boring people call "annoying echoes that make me sound funny." It may not seem like much, but it's enough to jumble up even the stoutest of would-be Ciceros.
According to the team who put this 1984 2012 wonder together, their purpose was twofold. The first was for use in what the public comfortably considers "quiet spaces," like libraries and movie theaters. The second was to disarm "louder, stronger" voices from dominating conversations.
"We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking," the paper explaining the SpeechJammer reads, "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."
So, essentially, they invented it so people would be forced into polite conversational tactics at gunpoint. Nice.
Source: ExtremeTech.com [http://www.extremetech.com/computing/120583-new-speech-jamming-gun-hints-at-dystopian-big-brother-future]
Thanks to Nick Burch for the tip!
Permalink
I see the terrible consequences of the loudmouths getting their hands on this to shut out their opposition. Though, for those of us that talk to ourselves, the thoughts in our heads have an echo of actual speech, so this isn't that hard to imagine being really uncomfortable.
Kinky!Ddgafd said:
It's all Greek to me.Mike Kayatta said:
On a more serious note, this has interesting real world applications.
Any of them think "why not just point a bullet-shooting gun at someone and tell them to shut up?"
gigastar said:
Saucycarpdog said:
i dont think its that advanced at all, according to the article it seems the device merely causes destructive interference in relation to the frequency of the speaker. basically you are still talking but the "anti noise" keeps other people from hearing you. its nothing groundbreaking, usually the opposite is done to emphasize the voiceband, like protective ear muffs and such.
so in a sense there is no way to overcome it, since it essentially makes the world "deaf" to you, however the microphone array might cut off other people, if its crowded, not to mention the targeting.
i agree with you that while its a fun(and i imagine expensive) gadget its utterly useless, who ever designed better have a hell of a marketing pitch. the only possible use i can see is in classrooms where teachers can silence annoying kids.
But what if you're a vocalist trained to listen to your voice through monitors, with a 200 ms delay effect for "space"?
See, I KNEW that garage band experience would pay off someday.
See, I KNEW that garage band experience would pay off someday.
As someone who works with sound every day, I really don't see this being effective. Focused directional microphones are old hat, and lots of people already experience exactly this kind of delay when speaking into mics connected to sound systems.Mike Kayatta said:
When I'm doing the morning announcements at school, I get a delay like that. You learn to just tune it out and continue speaking.
That all said, this gun does not physically stop you from talking. If it somehow generated a wave that interfered with the vibration of your vocal folds, that'd be physically stopping you. This just kind of... maybe irritates you into stopping?