Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for October 08, 2013

I don’t understand the speech jammer gun.

Have you ever listened to yourself being recorded with about a quarter-second delay? You staaaaart taaaaaalkiiiing liiiikkke thiiiiis, trying to wait for the end of the words you’re listening to.

That happens when you talk to someone with crappy phone service. That delay is annoying as hell.

50 different attempts? Such a well loved ruler.

The “speech jammer” might deter some people from continuing to speak if they are unable to tune out the distraction, but it can’t “prevent” anyone from speaking!

You think at some point Zog thought, “Maybe it’s me”?

The speech jammer is not perfect. It can be beaten. But not by everyone. Here is a vid of it in actionLink New window

I can get how the jammer works. on the news, when they’re talking to someone via satellite or skype, etc. there’s a delay and it can screw up the interview because someone ends up interrupting.

Delayed auditory feedback (like the speech jammer gun) has been around for years. It has been used as a way to treat stuttering and as a way to catch someone faking a hearing loss. I used one as an undergrad in the late 70s. But, it was a fairly bulky box and required headphone/mic combo.

The speech jamming phenomenon is something I have experienced. One time during my 9th grade Social Studies class, two student in front of me we ignoring our teacher and having a conversation of their own. My teacher’s words had to pass between then to get to me. Their conversation had the effect of scrambling what he was saying. I could hear his voice, but couldn’t make out what he was sayning.

As a customer service representative who has to deal with “smart” customers that like to use speaker, I can guarantee that jammer wouldn’t work on me, or any of my associates.