"Speech-Jamming" gun

[Alexyn1006]

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/250200/scitech/technology/speech-jamming-gun-developed-by-japanese-reasearchers

'Speech-jamming' gun developed by Japanese reasearchers

March 3, 2012 3:42pm 128 51Email2ShareThis181 In what could be a boon for librarians but a bane for free speech advocates, Japanese researchers have created a speech-jamming gun that promises to "silence" targets without hurting them. Researchers Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada said their "SpeechJammer" creates an "artificial speech disturbance with delayed auditory feedback" to disturb people's speech. "In general, human speech is jammed by giving back to the speakers their own utterances at a delay of a few hundred milliseconds. This effect can disturb people without any physical discomfort, and disappears immediately (when they) stop speaking," they said in a paper. Practical applications of the system include "facilitating and controlling discussions," they said. They added this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker. In their prototype, they used a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, to disturb the speech of only a specific person. A separate article on ExtremeTech.com said the handheld device can jam the words of speakers who are more than 30 meters away. But it said that while the gun could be used in libraries and other quiet spaces, the potential application to control discussions "is a lot more chilling." “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,” it quoted the two researchers as saying. How it works ExtremeTech said the gun works by listening in with a directional microphone. After a short delay of around 0.2 seconds, it plays back the sound with a directional speaker. The effect is a Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), which has long been known to interrupt speech. "You might’ve experienced the same effect if you’ve ever heard your own voice echoing through Skype or another voice comms program," it said. While it said DAF does not cause physical discomfort, "the fact that you’re unable to talk is obviously quite stressful." Potential use in rallies ExtremeTech cited a possible use for the gun at a political rally, where an audience member could completely lock down a speaker - or shut up the audience. On the other hand, it noted DAF may not work with utterances like “ahhh!” or “boooo!” or other non-wordy constructs. "So, basically, we’d all be reduced to communicating with grunts and gestures," it said, tongue-in-cheek. — TJD, GMA News

[JRob]

Maybe we could get one of these for use on Okie and the others... just sayin'