Do not get me started on the many possible uses of this in the average household.
Where can I put this on my next wedding registry? Best Buy?
Wish you can silence that annoying person yapping off on a cell phone? Now scientists have figured out a way to make it happen with a mere push of a button.
With a device called the Speechjammer, users can mute even the loudest talkers. Deactivating someone’s voice without their consent is some serious stuff. But the silence gun doesn’t cause any physical harm nor alters the person’s voice in any way. Instead, it operates on a phenomenon called delayed auditory feedback wherein an attached microphone picks up the speech and plays it back with a delay of 200 milliseconds. The echo effect causes the person’s brain to become so disoriented that it literally shuts down the region responsible for speech.
“This effect can disturb people without any physical discomfort, and disappears immediately [after] the speaking stops, ” wrote the researchers in a report. “Furthermore, this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker. It is expected that the negative aspects of speech…can be relaxed by the ability to jam remote people’s speech.”
The inventors, however, don’t plan to patent the technology because it’s relatively simple and there’s almost certain that some company will come out with market-ready product. And to demonstrate how such a device can come in handy, they recently released video that the silence gun can be used to ensure people can study in libraries without being disturbed or to put a stop to that endless mindnumbing lecture (although I’m sure they were just being a bit cheeky).
Still, I can imagine it’s also the kind of technology some people would use on themselves just for kicks.
You gotta see it to believe it:
- Amazing video: 30-story hotel built in just 15 days
- Glue pad let’s you stick TV to wall, holds 700 pounds
- A hoverboard powered by quantum levitation [video]
- Robot solves Rubik’s cube in 5 seconds
- Objects levitate using spooky quantum trick [video]
More innovative ideas:
