Japanese team invents device that silences the overly-wordy

The very definition of suppression of free speech; liberals will love it.

Oh come on slowburn lighten up. There's a place for political discussion, and that place is not a technology website

I had a boss I would have loved to use this on, control freak king, and as Forward Thinker said, Oh come on slowburn, lighten up,

Just cover your ears when you want to talk so it won't affect you. Doh!

You can create the same effect by listening to an old reel-to-reel tape recorder in action and listening to the "record" and not the "monitor". It's not difficult to ignore.

Otherwise a pair of noise cancelling earbuds would cancel it out.

A complete waste of time.

where was this thing when i was married?

In the era of ubiquitous cell phones and the oblivious people who have those glued to their ears, this would be heavenly. Although there is a free, low-tech way of dealing with such people, if you're game. If they won't stop jabbering on the phone, join the conversation. Listen in and talk to the caller. He or she can't talk to both you and the person on the other end of the call and should soon hang up, especially if you're a stranger.

The perfect tool for a political year. Can you imagine one in every hand and shutting the incessant yapping from politicians while the rest of us actually go to work? Wow, the possibilities.

It didn't seem to work, they kept talking after it was fired just sounding even more annoying and stupid.

Yeah the out of phase effect just rattles the brain - if you have ever gone on talk back radio with the 2 second delay - and heard yourself speak 2 seconds out of phase with what you are saying into the phone.....

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz my mind is faltering"

I get the "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz my mind is faltering" feeling listening to talk back radio.

What a great tool for political rallies and annoying people on public transport who just keep talking and ignore everyone staring at them wishing they would stop.

Although, you might want to turn off the laser for political rallies because the secret service or FBI might jump on you not knowing it is not a weapon.

Why not use it to create Star Treks Universal Translator? A device that blocks your speech and replaces it with another language?

I thought of a similar idea if you had a noisy neighbour. Pick up the loud music with a microphone, delay it through a guitar delay pedal, put it through an amplifier, and place the loudspeaker against the party wall. That should do it! I guess someone could hire out the necessary equipment.

This could become a favorite tool for a politician's handlers. No need to worry about hecklers or dissent, just point and shoot. Oh and that pushy reporters questions? No more! And that is not a good thing. But then I suppose the tables could be surreptitiously turned on the politicians as well.

If this could keep politicians from the lie constantly being used it might have a future.

Otherwise telling someone, you got their point, or show them your back woud be as effective.

@windykites1

Yes! I've been looking for technology to do this for a while now, but I'm not sure if delaying the sound would work, I think you need to create an inverse pressure wave. I'm thinking delaying the sound would only create more noise. Because wearing noise cancelling headphones can be a pain if you are trying to sleep.

quite funny 8)

The House can use a gizmo like this.

We wish we could use the SpeechJammer on Slowburn's Republican babble.

@Jugen. I didn't explain my idea fully. What happens is that yes, it would create more noise, but I reckon it would spoil the music for the nuisance neighbour fairly quickly. I suppose another way would be to play loud classical music, again with the speaker against the wall.

Windykites 1 yes you did exactly as this machine does. This device comes in the realm of psychological warfare as nothing physical is involved. When I was small I used to simply repeat what the other person is saying in realtime. It was pretty instant and really annoying for others and had dramatic effects. It's strange how one thought of this as funny when young actually had a scientific basis.

Once the speakers find people using this, they'll just get ear plugs.

If you silence them they will still want to talk. Make them not want to talk. Make the device transform their voice to sound like a chipmunk or better yet you could use that gas vortex gun as shown in one of the gizmag articles and shoot helium into peoples mouths. Fun for everyone!

"We wish we could use the SpeechJammer on Slowburn's Republican babble.

comment The Hoff - March 5, 2012 @ 07:44 pm PST"

That proves my point quite nicely. But I'm a constitutional conservative not Dem light.