Silence Gun: Strange weapon of the future immediately quiets you, whether you like it or not

[mia]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/weird-gun-future-attacks-words-not-people-193050045.html

Ever since humans first invented guns, they've been inventing new uses for them. Some shoot bullets; others shoot lasers. But a strange and unsettling new gun being developed by Japanese researchers shoots sound waves in an effort to disrupt and silence anyone who dares speak out of turn.

The gun operates based on the concept of delayed auditory feedback. An attached microphone picks up the sound being made by the target and plays it back 0.2 seconds later. The effect is incredibly confusing to the human brain, making it all but impossible to talk or hold a conversation. The device doesn't cause the person it's being used on any physical harm — it simply messes with their head.

When the human brain hears its own speech perfectly in sync during normal speech, it easily processes the input and allows you to largely ignore the sound of your own voice. However, by offsetting the response just a bit, the brain hears your mouth speaking as well as the strange echo effect produced by the gun. This unusual combination is confusing enough to effectively shut down the part of your brain responsible for managing speech, and you fall immediately silent.

The first versions of the weapon — if we can even call it that — were dependent on a separate PC to process the input and relay it back to the speaker. However, the second prototype (pictured above) does away with the need for additional hardware and includes all the necessary processing bits within its casing, making it easily portable....


My first thought was: will it work in the classroom?

[mindwalker_i]

1. My first thought was, can we use it on street preachers?

There was a guy who would stand in the park where I went to college and preach. It really ruined a lot of beautiful fall days.

[IDemo]

2. OR misogynistic radio DJ's..

[Motown_Johnny]

5. can we call it "The Rush Gun"?

[targetpractice]

3. Seems like it could be defeated easily enough by plugging your ears...

I have no doubt that it would work on me... I often get echo feedback using AT&T wireless in my neighborhood... My brain immediately shuts down on a call and I must hang up and dial again.

[Demonaut]

4. my cell used to do that...very hard to talk past it..very

drove me nuts

[jmowreader]

6. Well, this will be banned in about two seconds...

Just imagine what a couple thousand of those in the hands of DUers on the tea party's favorite holiday (which is April 15--they have decorations at Hallmark and everything) could do to the rabid right...

[saras]

7. It doesn't work on punk rock singers...

It stops you from speaking coherently but WON'T stop you from chanting slogans. Wonderful.

So start clapping hands in rhythm to it.

Or singing rockabilly.

Or kecak. Because none of these guys are speaking out of turn.

[guitar man]

8. Oh so NOW they invent this thing

After I've been married for 20 years....pfft

[Evasporque]

9. any trained vocalist could overcome it....

news item is blullshit twaddle....I have experienced "feedback" or echo....and at first it catches you off guard but can be ignored in a few seconds....

[JDPriestly]

12. Right, Evasporque.

[Speck Tater]

10. Years and years ago,

back in the 60's I had a multi-head tape recorder and I could playback from the second head what I recorded with the first head.

A great party trick was to bet somebody 20 bucks that they couldn't read a simple nursery rhyme. I'd put the headphones on them and hand them a printed version of "Mary had a little lamb" and nobody, absolutely nobody every made it through the first line of the poem. It messes you brain up so bad it frightening. You stutter and stammer, and struggle to get one single word out, but you can't.

Of course as soon as you take the headphones off your brain goes back to normal. But that 2/10ths of a second delay just completely scrambles your ability to process language. It was especially mind-boggling after a few tokes of herb.

[sakabatou]

11. Now all the need to do is invent shut-up juice

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. The concept and devices that use it are scarcely new

Go back to the 50s...