Get Smart’s Cone Of Silence Revisited

Anyone remember the CONE OF SILENCE from the old TV series “Get Smart”? Here is a picture to remind you.

The idea was that no one can eavesdrop on conversations inside the cone of silence.

Today, with Amazon Echos and similar devices everywhere, some people would like to bring back the cone of silence.

Ben Zhao had a problem.  He bought an Echo, but when he brought it home, his wife Heather was not pleased. She sort of suggested that Ben needed to UNPLUG it.

The two of them are computer science professors at the University of Chicago. So they decided to turn lemons into lemonade. With the help of another prof, decided to recreate the cone of silence. They invented the “bracelet of silence”. Works better, much smaller. Doesn’t crush the desk when you use it.

The bracelet that only a true geek could love (see picture below) has 24 speakers that emit ultrasonic noise .

While most people will hear nothing (except maybe dogs and children), the Alexas and similar devices will hear the high frequency noise instead of the conversations.

A problem that people have to deal with when trying to avoid being recorded is that they don’t always know if there are any microphones in the room. Or where they are.

Many jamming devices are directional, meaning that you have to point the jammer at the microphone. If you don’t even know that there is a microphone, never mind where it is, a directional jammer is a bit hard to use.

Enter the bracelet of silence.

A bit geeky, but, apparently, it works. They demoed it during the call with the reporter who wrote the article.

Unfortunately, this is one of a kind.

But now that it been invented, maybe someone will commercialize it.

*I* would buy one.

Source: NY Times

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