Japanese researchers make "speech-jamming" gun

arXiv

(CBS News) Japanese researchers have found the answer to one of life's oldest questions: "How can I get that person to shut up?"

Researchers Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Ochanomizu University, respectively, published a paper with details of a gun they are calling the "SpeechJammer."

The device works by "shooting" the offending voice back at the source. Users can literally aim at a target and pull the trigger.

"In general, human speech is jammed by giving back to the speakers their own utterances at a delay of a few hundred milliseconds," the researchers said in the paper. "This effect can disturb people without any physical discomfort, and disappears immediately by stop speaking."

By exploiting a phenomenon called Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), the researchers were able to trick the brain into vocal submission. The idea is that when we speak, we don't just generate sound. Our brains actually need to hear what comes out of our mouths. It's called "auditory feedback."

"Our natural utterances are jammed when the auditory feedback is artificially delayed. It is thought that this delay affects some cognitive processes in our brain," the researchers said.

Basically, it is nearly impossible to speak if your own words are played back to you at a delay of about "a few hundred milliseconds."

The result is very similar to stuttering. Apparently, DAF can cause a "physically unimpaired" person to stutter. In an ironic twist, DAF can also help a improve stuttering. And, medical DAF devices already exist for that purpose.

The researchers were able to build a working prototype. Details of their research and methodology can be found at the Cornell University Archives under the title, "SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback."

[W_Sang]

This iPhone app do the same thing
Speech Zapper [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speech-zapper/id539347332?ls=1&mt=8]

[retiredgustav]

This device may save a lot of mariages.

[ganguandaland]

It only works on one person at a time and it doesn't silence the subject completely. A person may still be able to vocalize, but the result becomes gibberish. The "Silencing" effect comes about because a person is likely to stop speaking instead of continuing speaking nonsense.

[prizm1]

This technology will be helpful in silencing protesters and any other peacefully assembled group of undesirable citizens such as Occupy Wall Street. This is a great way for government to control free speech. Sure, you can speak, but no one will be allowed to hear you. It is good to know that new technologies can be instituted in bypassing unwanted Constitutional freedoms.

[amerilatino]

Careful what you wish for, prizm. Repression is not and never has been a natural part of human social evolution. History has proven time and time again that continuous repression of whole societies leads to mass rebellion and bloodshed, and you might just end up one of those who sheds it.

[foo8259]

The result immediate by stop speaking and will even help a improve stutter.

[MIO42]

I myself have ordered over 5 thousand of these devices
I believe this is the greatest invention ever conceived

Although a close Source recently confided these devices have not been proven to work on

POLITICIANS

[rwsmith29456]

The therapist in 'The King's Speech' movie drowned out the king's voice with noise so he couldn't hear himself and he was able to speak without stuttering.

[micmac666]

Can it please have a "shotgun" mode?

[barbaram99]

It won't work on the hard of hearing and deaf people..Let them make fools out of it..I just can't hear it...Speak up ..I think the thing is rude..I have never heard it..The men forget us ladies are great at tuning things out..If I wish to watch TV..I have to crank it up to hear it..I don't know if sending our voice back to us would work..It is hard to tell a computer that answers the phone to shut up..I have told the thing to shut up..They built a machine to tell us to shut up..At leese I can't see the thing..

[fantomas4]

The real shame here is that I can't point it at the TV and get O'Reilly to shut his yap.

[micmac666]

Try your remote.

[micmac666]

Try your remote.