Friday, March 2, 2012

Japan Invents Speech-Jamming Gun

Japanese researchers have invented a speech-jamming gadget that forces people into silence, reports FOX.

Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University, have developed a portable "SpeechJammer" gun that can silence people more than 30 meters away.

The device works by recording its target's speech then firing their words back at them with a 0.2-second delay, which affects the brain's cognitive processes and causes speakers to stutter before silencing them completely.

16 comments:

  1. How quickly before police forces around the world employ this little toy in their fight against the 99%?

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    1. Against the 1% or the 99% is an irrelevant argument, the fact they'd want it to have is only a step away before they'll invent a reason to just use it.

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    2. its not the speech they gotta worry about when the shtf

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  2. So if I plug my ears I'd be immune?

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  3. Does this work with politicians?

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  4. The only good use for this that I can see is for the missus.

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  5. Unfortunately, teleprompters disrupt the effect. Bummer!

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  6. I wonder if this device could be foiled with earmuffs

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  7. Could be useful against politicians spewing propoganda?

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  8. Does it work on politicians?

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  9. The idea of there being a 'heart attack gun' doesn't seem so far fetched after reading about this.

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  10. I wonder if this will be available for civilians as an app for their smartphone one day. I would love to use this on my wife sometimes :) .

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  11. I have actually experimented with this exact mechanism - trying to read or say something while having your own voice played back to you with a slight delay. I can confirm that it is more or less impossible to get through an entire sentence without very serious preparation and concentration. If you focus hard enough on saying the sentence in one burst, and simultaneously prepare yourself to try and block out anything you hear (sort of like when you are shouting in a noisy environment) you might get something vaguely understandable out.

    What is most annoying (or hilarious when you try it) is that as you are speaking, you start somehow modulating what you are saying to what you are hearing, making it sound sort of like this :

    "I caaooounnooouut cooaaaummpplaaaulleetetettet acaaocufufufufaull seaufufufusentenullece" (I cant complete a full sentence)

    I suspect however that this gadget won't work very well in overly noisy environments, because the whole effect (if I have understood the science correctly) is that we are used to hearing our own voice resonating in our head, but it all goes whack when we hear it too late. However, if there is a lot of other noise then it is probably easier to ignore what is being played back at you.

    Also, it may be possible to fire back at such a gadget by creating a feedback loop (like when you hold an electric guitar too close to an amplifier).

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  12. One word: earplugs :)

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  13. I think this is a fantastic idea. I'm going to take one to the next Obama rally and silence that mother fu*ker.

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  14. Can this man be awarded some kind of anti-medal that will shame him? Some scientists should realize that just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you HAVE to.

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