The SpeechJammer, Tool of Future Dystopian Tyrants or Greatest Idea Ever?

A paper published by two Japanese researchers last week has been making some noise among both language-people and tech-people recently. Although if it works as promised, the SpeechJammer may be able to silence its own critics. From the abstract:

In this paper we report on a system, "SpeechJammer",
which can be used to disturb people's speech. In
general, human speech is jammed by giving back to
the speakers their own utterances at a delay of a few
hundred milliseconds. This effect can disturb people
without any physical discomfort, and disappears
immediately by stop speaking [sic].

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, life just got a mute button.

Sadly, still no rewind button
for last weekend.

Imagine the possibilities for a moment: angry ex-spouses, boring lecturers, anyone who starts a sentence by saying "I know I've said this before, but...." Suddenly, dinner parties become bearable, cocktail parties no longer tedious. If I'd have had one of these in grad school, well, I might have stayed there.

The scientific principal behind the SpeechJammer is called Delayed Audio Feedback. Psychologists have discovered that if playing back someone's words at a slight delay interrupts the normal feedback we use to evaluate our speech. The result is an irritating sensation that can only be relieved by shutting up. Presumably, the effect was discovered during Bring Your Child to Work Day.

Why are you copying me? Why are you copying me?
That's annoying. That's annoying.
Stop it! Stop it!

Already, a chorus of negative types have been sounding the alarm about the potential for abuse by oppressive Big Brother types. To which I reply: if you outlaw SpeechJammer guns, only outlaws will have SpeechJammer guns. And, really, who wants to listen to outlaws all the time?

He never stops talking about how
brilliant the show Deadwood was.

Perhaps the greatest part of this invention is the poetic justice. The only way to shut a person's pie-hole is to stuff their own words down their throats. Even if they can ignore the Delayed Audio Feedback, as research shows there is considerable variation in the response to DAF, maybe the shame of knowing what a jackass they sound like will do the trick.