the real cone of silence sounds boring compared to the very fallible cone of silence in Get Smart-hilarious!
On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote: > Sounds (sorry) impractical. > > Udhay > > > http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227075.700-cone-of-silence-keeps-conversations-secret.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news > > 'Cone of silence' keeps conversations secret > > * 09 May 2009 by Paul Marks > > > IN Get Smart, the 1960s TV spy comedy, secret agents wanting a private > conversation would deploy the "cone of silence", a clear plastic > contraption lowered over the agents' heads. It never worked - they > couldn't hear each other, while eavesdroppers could pick up every word. > Now a modern cone of silence that we are assured will work is being > patented by engineers Joe Paradiso and Yasuhiro Ono of the Massachusetts > Institute of Technology. > > Their idea, revealed in US patent application 2009/0097671 on 16 April, > is to make confidential conversations possible in open-plan offices and > canteens. It will even let a conversing group move around a room and > still remain in a secure sound bubble. > > "In increasingly common open-plan offices, the violation of employees' > privacy can often become an issue, as third parties overhear their > conversations intentionally or unintentionally," the inventors say in > their patent. Their aim is to relieve people of that concern. > In open-plan offices, the violation of employees' privacy can often > become an issue > > Instead of plastic domes, they use a sensor network to work out where > potential eavesdroppers are, and speakers to generate a subtle masking > sound at just the right level. > > It sounds simple, but it needs quite a bit of infrastructure. The walls > of the room must be peppered with light-switch-sized units that include > a microphone, a speaker, an infrared location sensor and networking > circuitry connected to a server. When somebody wants to activate what > the MIT researchers call the "sound shield", they do so on their desktop > computer. Knowing the position of the computer, the sensors identify the > person and map out the locations of people around them. Software > assesses who is so close that they must be participants in the > conversation, and who might be a potential eavesdropper. > > The array of speakers then aims a mix of white noise and randomised > office hubbub at the eavesdroppers. The subtle, confusing sound makes > the conversation unintelligible. > > The ideas are not completely new - but what has gone before has big > limitations, says Paradiso. "Current systems put sound out from one > source. The sound isn't generally placed optimally between potential > listeners and the people in conversation so there can often be too much > or too little masking noise." > > For instance, the Babble, from Sonare Technologies, is a radio-sized > machine with two speakers that emits white noise from your desk to mask > what you are saying on the phone. But it is over-noisy, say the MIT > team, and also fixed in place, whereas their system's sensors can track > people as they move around, and shift the masking noise accordingly. > > If they decide to press ahead and exploit the idea, the system will also > advise users whether there are other people too close by for it to > assure secrecy. "With people often working in large open-plan spaces > now, the time has come for ideas like this," says Paradiso. > > Klaus Moeller, founder of sound-masking systems maker Logison of > Oakville, Ontario, Canada, is impressed with MIT's ambition but doubts > its practicality. Logison uses a proprietary technology called Accumask > that masks only speech frequencies to deaden voice transmission in > offices - and it needs few fittings. > > "I wish MIT the best of luck with their idea," says Moeller. "It sounds > very expensive and not very practical in an office environment." He > thinks architects may object to the many wall or ceiling-mounted devices > the system needs to follow people around the office. > > > -- > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > >
