Silence

Someone said, "Silence is golden." There are variations of it all the way back to ancient Egypt. And, apparently some folks in Japan agree. According to Tecca.com, Japanese researchers have developed a silence gun.

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.

When the human brain hears its own speech perfectly in sync during normal speech, it easily processes the input and allows you to essentially 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 combination is confusing enough to effectively shut down the part of your brain responsible for managing speech, and you fall immediately silent.

The device doesn’t cause any physical harm to the person it’s being used on - it simply messes with their head.

The developers say the "gun" could be used in situations where anyone who fancies a noisy outburst would be immediately silenced by the high-tech handheld device.

My first response to such a device is to lovingly comment that I have $20 bucks that says it won’t even slow my mother-in-law down.

And, what’s going to happen if someone brings one of these into a Baptist church where the preacher goes over his 20 minute time limit?

PMO
©2011