From what I’ve been given to understand, Japan has developed a “silence gun”. It’s not a very good name for it, seeing as how it doesn’t produce silence, but whatever. What it does is this: supposedly, it delivers a slap-back echo of someone’s speech 0.2 seconds after their own speech, so it makes it very confusing to continue forming sentences. Yay, Japan! You’ve finally found a way to destroy freedom of speech! Except that it won’t work. (Wastes of money like this are usually the exclusive domain of the United States government!)
Anyone who has ever been a singer in a live band with PA systems, etc., knows what this feels like. You sing, or you talk, and it comes right back at you a split-second later, making it very confusing to form a sentence. So what to do? Well, you could do what I did the very first time I experienced this phenomenon: speak one word at a time. You simply say every word you want to, let it slap-back echo at you, and then say the next word. You’ll notice bands doing this from time to time. Once they have enough experience, they usually know what to say in advance, and problem solved. But speaking one word at a time solves this issue completely, especially if you have a written statement with you already prepared.
And there is also another, simpler way to defeat this instrument known as the “silence gun”: put your fingers in your ears when you speak (or else wear ear plugs). When you have earplugs in or you put your fingers in your ears, you will hear your own voice resonating in your head, and it should drown out the external noise interference. I used to wear earplugs in a series of loud punk and metal bands, and I did it to protect my hearing from damage from such loud volume levels; but I also found that I could always sing in tune, because it enables you to hear your own voice much better than even a monitor system will let you do, while at the same time drowning out the excessive external noise. If a roaring 300 Watts of amps from 6-feet away can't beat this system, their stupid “silence gun” won't work either. So bring ear plugs to these meetings where they might give you the “silence gun”, and you will always be able to speak coherently and defeat this thing.
Sorry, Japan. Nice try, but you just can’t beat the experience of a live punk rock band member when it comes to audio tricks. (Punk rock always wants to promote anarchy, and that’s why its musicians always know so much about acoustics. Or something.) How about developing a laser-guided gun that will shoot delicious, sticky foods into people’s mouths instead? That might work! And it might even be a great ad campaign for such foods, like taffy, or a Marathon Bar (if they indeed still exist). So you could make money from an ad crew while you silence angry mobs: a two-fer!
(When I first saw this story’s headline, I thought it was a device to send an inverse sound wave back at the noise source, essentially canceling the sound, or at least lessening it. But this actually makes the sound louder {albeit directionally}, but confuses the speaker? This is not a silence gun: it’s a talker discombobulation machine. That’s not the same thing at all. You could just get people to yell over the people you wish to shut up, and it would do the same thing. And then think of all the money you’d save on this “silence gun”!)
(When I first saw this story’s headline, I thought it was a device to send an inverse sound wave back at the noise source, essentially canceling the sound, or at least lessening it. But this actually makes the sound louder {albeit directionally}, but confuses the speaker? This is not a silence gun: it’s a talker discombobulation machine. That’s not the same thing at all. You could just get people to yell over the people you wish to shut up, and it would do the same thing. And then think of all the money you’d save on this “silence gun”!)
Here’s the story:
