Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Ochanimizu University have developed a gun-like device which can stun a person’s speech from over 30 metres away – they’re calling it the SpeechJammer.
Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada came up with the back-chatting stopping gadget which records a target’s speech through a directional mic and relays it back with a milliseconds delay. Aim at the speaker mouth using a laser sight and pull the trigger and this confuses the cognitive process of the speaker’s brain so that firstly they stutter before stammering to a silence. Jamming human speech – hence the SpeechJammer. The device currently works on people who are reading, but blocking regular speech or vocal noises has still not been perfected
An amusing demo video show examples of the gun in use, stunning a mobile phone user in a study hall and stopping “endless lectures” but employment of the SpeechJammer is a little more serious and intended to forcibly and unwillingly silence library chatterboxes or those who interrupt in political speeches out of turn. “There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts” – say the researchers. Of course we don’t believe for one second that either of the creators have been inspired to make this by annoyance spouting spouses!
This would be truly unbelievable had it not come from a respected source as The Telegraph and there are a few weeks to go until April 1st so we’re treating this one as legit. But as per usual this is one that could come from nowhere else but Japan!
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