Speaking comes naturally to people, and unless one is disabled, there shouldn’t be any problem with one voicing out opinions and ideas.
Unless of course you were pointed at with this SpeechJammer device.
Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan developed the device, which is capable of making you physically stop speaking. Research indicates that when we talk, we are actively listening to our own speech, and not just using our mouths as an “audio out” speaker. We listen to what we say and how we sound gives shape to what we continue speaking.
How the SpeechJammer works is by recording what you have said as you say it, and playing it back at you with a delay of a few hundred milliseconds. Such a minute delay is capable of literally rendering us speechless, as it messes up our natural cadence, in an effect known as Delayed Auditory Feedback.
The Institute tested out a prototype of using a directional microphone and a directional speaker, with a distance sensor, and it is capable of working up to 100 feet (30.5 meters).
The interesting part of the research comes with the result that when used on regular people, it causes them to stutter, but when used on people with speech impairments, it was capable of relieve their problems.
Imagine all the uses and misuse such technology can lead to. On the good side, we could probably see this used in places like cinemas and the theaters perhaps. ALthough on the dark side, it could be used to silence protesters, and that would be the end of freedom of speech. I suppose it is up to the user of such technology, just as other devices have been used for good or evil.