Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
MIT Conversation Shielding Like Cone Of Silence
Distributed acoustic conversation shielding is the subject of a new patent by MIT Media Lab researchers. The device is designed to protect the privacy of spontaneous workplace conversations with sound from distributed loudspeakers. The units could be disguised as power strips.
(Conversation shielding 'power strip' [pdf])
This usage scenario is taken from the earlier paper Distributed Acoustic Conversation Shielding: An Application of a Smart Transducer Network by Yasuhiro Ono*, Joshua Lifton, Mark Feldmeier, Joseph A. Paradiso.
An office worker happened to meet one of his colleagues, a team member of a project, in the open space of their office area, and they started to chat about their project. He noticed that the content of the conversation was getting rather confidential to people outside their team. He pushes a button on his mobile device to trigger the acoustic conversation shielding application, at which point, various speakers surrounding them start to emit a masking sound to prevent others from overhearing the conversation. When the conversation is over, he pushes the button again to stop the masking.
Here's a prototype version of a conversation shielding wearable controller.
(Conversation shielding wearable controller [pdf])
They actually tested this idea with a network of 12 units, about two meters apart, with some success. The masking sounds decreased the signal-to-noise ratio by 5-10 dB at each location.
Science fiction readers (and television watchers) find this idea familiar. Most of us recall the cone of silence made famous in the Sixties television show Get Smart. Take a look at this commercial which shows the cone of silence in use.
(Cone of silence in Get Smart)
Perhaps more specifically, Frank Herbert used the term and the basic idea and the term cone of silence in his 1958 short story Cease Fire.
SF readers also recall the Fenton silencer from Arthur C. Clarke's 1957 story Silence Please.
It consisted of a microphone, a special amplifier and a pair of loud speakers. Any sound that happened to be about was picked up by the mike, amplified and inverted so it was exactly out of phase with the original noise. Then it was pumped out of the speakers, the original wave and the new one cancelled out, and the net result was silence.
(Read more about Clarke's Fenton silencer)
A year earlier, Robert Heinlein wrote about a hush corner in his 1956 novel Double Star.
Sometimes such facilities in public places like hotels are not all that they might be; the sound waves fail to cancel out completely. But the Eisenhower is a luxury house and in this case, at least, the equipment worked perfectly; I could see their lips move but I could hear no sound.
As far as I know, the earliest use of the cone of silence term and idea occurred in a 1955 episode of Science Fiction Theatre entitled "Barrier of Silence."
From Distributed Acoustic Conversation Shielding: An Application of a Smart Transducer Network [pdf] and Distributed Acoustic Conversation Shielding System [patent application]; via New Scientist.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/10/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 1 )
Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")
Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.' - Neal Stephenson, 1995.
Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
Darpa 'Defiant' Unmanned Autonomous Ship
There was no wheel, and no steersman!' - Miles J. Breuer, 1930.
DNA Printed Book By Isaac Asimov Now Available
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!' - Barbara Hambly, 1982.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
TRANSFORM Dynamic Furniture Concept Becomes What You Need
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
Harvard Metamaterials Change Structure Instantly
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
Dino From Magical Toys An AI Companion To Children
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
Darpa 'Defiant' Unmanned Autonomous Ship
'There was no wheel, and no steersman!'
What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots?
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
DNA Printed Book By Isaac Asimov Now Available
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
AI Computer Chip Designs Passeth Human Understanding
'It seems that at one time computers were designed directly by human beings.'
Space Traffic Management (STM) Needed Now
'...the spot was a lonely one in an uncharted region, far from the normal lanes of space traffic.'
Fine-Tune Your Infinite Book The Way You Want It
'I squatted down beside the roller and tried to make some sense out of the knobs. There were thirty-nine of them...'
SpiRobs Soft Spiral Robotic Arm
'Beware the long, flexible, glittering tentacles...'
Holland Factory 3D Printing 500 Tons Of Steak Per Month
'...I don’t understand technical things — tell me, does it ever feel anything?"
Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering From Harvard
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
