Testing My Speech Jammer In Public 

What have we definitely learned, here? That no matter the circumstances, human beings are always capable of yelling "Fuck"

I feel like I'd fail the challenge without the jammer

Please stop aiming it at the President....

I knew a guy (he was a customer that sometimes visit a business I ran) who would repeat everything you said as you were speaking - in real time, with a slight delay. He would guess / mumble what word you were saying next and then correct himself as he figured out the word. It was extremely hard to speak with this guy close by - most people would just stop talking. I have demonstrated what he did to many friends and work colleagues, and while I am nowhere near as good as the mirror speak as this guy was, they have all been stopped in their tracks and unable to speak further.

Benn has started his supervillain arc. They finally pushed him too far.

This would make such a cool interactive museum piece, imagine a microphone at a podium with the sound laser directly overhead

I tried a delayed auditory feedback in around 1962 in an expo at the University of Texas. It's impossible to overcome for more than a few seconds. It virtually scrambles the-the-the brain.

I remember hearing about japanese intervention force using something like this to disarm public speakers/peace disrupters without violence. Nice video!

The trick with the speech jammer, is to be sure and firm with your choice of words and to not let yourself be concerned with how you sound. Most get tongue tied because they can hear themselves and try to adjust their speaking voice while focusing on the jammer voice.

As an ex actor who has had to recite lines from memory while having a fever, a twisted ankle, clogged ears, etc; I would love to know if that experience and ability would combat your sonic pressure. Also, pointing it at a singer while singing would also be intriguing.

I cannot even concentrate when my bluetooth headphones are half a second out of sync with your lips, so reading to your speech jammer surely would be impossible. fantastic stuff, great channel, enjoying so much here, cheers!

This was an eye-opening and entertaining use of electronics. I envy your knowledge and imagination. Thank you so much for this video!

I've heard a story that an engineer started delaying monitors when a stage crashed tried to steal the mic to bring up their own agenda. The delay was so disorienting the intruder got off the mic

You can train yourself to tune out the background voice. Source: I worked at an ATT call center for years and OFTEN people would call while on speaker phone and their volume loud. This produced the delay effect and it 100% trips people up for a couple weeks. After that your brain learns to phase it out.

Dude! Fascinating. I need to go back and finish the hum video now. Definitely subscribed.

istg an invisible version of this exists 1 foot away from me 24/7

Back when I worked a call center job, the delayed feedback thing would sometimes happen with people on speaker phone. I had to perfect the art of ignoring anything my ears were hearing in order to be able to speak when it happened.

It is possible to train your yourself to deal with the delay of your own voice. In the military, the vehicle headsets in some of our armored vehicles (for intercom and radio) would have a delayed feedback. It's pretty stressful to have to deal with that while communicating important things like target coordinates etc. But you get used to having to force-filter it out. On the receiving end you can hear who has feedback loops because their rate of speech slows down.

This was an all around awesome video ❤

So jealous. I wish we had a knob con here. This channel has some all of my fav things in one. Music, science and phenomenon. You have a nice collection of synths, drum machines and studio gear. I would like to hear more about your other interests as well.

I think this also works if you DON'T hear yourself. I often have to attend group calls for my work using Slack, and since I work from home, I use noise cancelling earphones. But they're so good at blocking sound that I can't hear myself speaking, so I have to take it out from one ear during calls so I can speak coherently.

If you've ever worked at a call center you learn very quickly how to speak through auditory feedback. People will just leave you on speaker and you get used to just pushing through.

Sonic speech jamming weapons were used by the police against the occupy wall Street speakers. It was wildly successful in disrupting the protests

I was born, raised, and lived in Arlington Heights for 20 years. Love to you and yours

I have to do this constantly while at work (airport). We regularly speak on radios while having other radios on the same frequency nearby. You hear you own voice on a half second delay and have to keep it together because you’re speaking with flight crews. Challenging but fun once you master it. When i got the job i would recite common pilot relay phrases while listening to talk radio/podcasts and try not to stumble over my words. Being able to communicate clearly in a loud environment without tripping over your words is incredibly useful.

Soon to be available from Behringer for $99.99

very informative and interesting project! thank you for sharing! subbed :)

love this, its great work 🙂

A delayed latency from a cheap USB mic + headphones was enough to totally break my brain when I first started experimenting with vocal recording. This shit is so real and so annoying for novice producers

This is super cool! One note: Tartini tones are a psychoacoustic effect, but the audible sound generated by the speaker (called a parametric array) is physical. By that I mean the audible frequencies from the speaker are actually present in the sound wave rather than being "produced" by our brain. The effect here is instead called "generation of sound by ultrasound," and it only happens for very high pressure sound waves (nonlinear acoustic waves), which in this case are the ultrasonic carrier waves, which is why the transducers draw so much current. The interaction itself, the audible sound, is relatively weak because it's generated by the air in front of the speakers, not the speakers themselves.

So good! ... thanks for sharing.

This video was amazing and a goooood watch you gotcha a subscriber

Had a bunch of fun participating. I should train myself with such a device -- maybe it would make it easier?

Are you really the guy who invented this?? Thank you for helping me ace every college speech I ever gave. Seriously I crushed all of them - I was the best speaker in any class I took and it wasn't close. I saw your "speech jammer" when I was in college. I don't have the skills or ability to make one - but I looked into it. Someone somewhere (I think the creator was japanese) wrote a program that you can download to your computer that works on the same principle. You speak into your computer microphone and your voice comes out of your headphones on a delay you control. I used this program whenever I had to give a speech in school. I still use this technique for business presentations today. All you do is plan what you want to present, practice, and when you think you're ready - turn on the speech jammer and run it again. As your video showed - it's possible to get through it, but you have to be EXTREMELY confident. It's elevated my speaking skills a ton! Thanks again - Subscribed!

Nice man! I had this idea a while ago. Glad to see it out in the world!

Hi Benn, I am a new subscriber. love your videos. Where did you purchase the hypersonic sound arrays/ speakers?

That blonde guy actually beat the test too. Sure he slowed down, but he didn't make a mistake. I think he should've counted as a winner.

Dude, you can fake the location of sound! From art to immersive experiences: monsters breaking the door, throwing a fart sound around, whatever you can imagine. This has entertainment value!

Very very cool... really enjoyed your video ! I do wonder about the musician / non musician aspect.... very interesting.

Holy crap benn, you never stop amazing me. Great video

I used to work in the USAF (in the 1980s), setting up long-distance communications. We used to have great fun with delayed feedback, so as soon as I saw the title here I had a pretty good idea of what the technique was going to entail. Of course, for us the victims were typically wearing headphones. BRAVO for getting it to work with directional speakers!

I ran into this doing a presentation to an audience where we were using a computer presentation (years before zoom) and when we went live someone inadvertently changed something and I ended up hearing myself at full volume a half second delayed. Being live there wasn’t an opportunity to change anything. I did the entire hour long ‘show’ that way, including Q and A. No one could tell anything was wrong. Afterwards, my coworkers asked how it felt. So I had them sit in the chair and try. None of them could complete even one sentence. We fixed it for the next show in the series, and all went well. I too am not a musician. I also am not fooled by the vast majority of audio illusions. I most often hear exactly what is there, not the creation of what is expected to be there. With jazz music, missing notes are common. And the vast majority of people ‘hear’ the missing notes. Their brains fill in the blanks. Mine doesn’t. I suspect that your one success story may similarly process sound differently from you and most other people. I have often wondered if this is the result if different brain architecture related to Neanderthal, or Denisovan genes. If true, it may tell us a lot about differences in cognition. I suspect this too because of the extreme development of the visual cortex in Neanderthals compared to Sapiens who seem to be more specialized in audio than visual processing. That too may then tie to other differences. The highly parallel processing in vision may then mean that those brain structures support cognition that operates that way. I suspect this is highly present in most engineers for example. On the other hand, sound processing is different and equally rich, though in a completely different way. As you were at a convention whose focus was audio, it isn’t surprising that on;y one person was the exception. If you are able to try this again with other groups (engineers, cinematographers, artists, writers, …) you may see very different results.

You’re videos are amazing! !

Fascinating! Thanks

Oh, it's YOU who is trying to get Mitch McConnell to retire. Please continue. 🙏

With more transducers you could probably create a phased array that's capable of tracking a target while itself remaining stationary... I love your channel. Such variety in topics, yet all audio related, and with incredibly diverse ideas

That was fun to watch 😂❤

This was such a fantastic video

When you’re a little kid, and you and your friend simultaneously scream really high - you get that lower oscillation, warbling inside your head. I love it. Your details of this sound laser remind me of those days on the playground. My god we would get in trouble for screaming lol

Dude this was such a joy to participate in!!! Thanks for being a great hang and an awesome mad scientist. 🤟 🤯

That was hilarious how he downplayed the evil potential. In the beginning (which he allowed us to skip) he explained how to essentially put thoughts into someone's mind using their own voice.

Lol you really drug that out, that's still a pretty cool devise though but yeah when I hear my own voice through my mic it really messes me up.

I’ve actually improvised lyrics for an entire song while having a delayed auditory feedback going on, i recorded it in 2016. It… honestly somehow came out surprisingly ok but you can hear me struggle saying words like brother, didn’t, and gonna. Kinda cool seeing someone revisiting it with hypersonic arrays like that. Also super cool seeing Jeremy Blake again.

There is a lady in Australia who broadcasts radio on the ABC (government public radio). Her name is Nas Campanella and she is blind. When she is presenting news from a script, it is played to her via headphones and she is speaking it simultaneously and fluently. I'm not sure if this could be related to the type of work you are doing in this video but if you happen to read this, I hope there is some interesting thoughts or ideas that you may find.

Awesome vid, awesome experiment, awesome device...I love it, super cool.

When I took my Recording Engineering course (way back before such a thing really existed), the instructor was amazed with my ability to continue speaking, no matter how he distorted my voice thru foldback. (None of the other students were able to do this) while more of a parlour trick at the time than actual research, I'd be more than happy to be a test subject in any of your research/experiments.

it would be interesting for the viewer to get a demo of how the jammer actually sounded like for the people targetted! Definitely want to see a more indepth video on this, it's really cool.

I worked in a call center for a while. Our voip system would occasionally break or maybe it was their voip. Regardless I'd have to take a call where I had an echo of my voice. I believe I got better at it to the point where I could do a call without issue while having an echo. I wonder if its a learnable skill people can break into having with practice.

It's amazing what we can fade out though! Apparently, we all hear our own heart beat, all the time, constantly, but fade it out - I guess to avoid insanity!?

Wow, this was soo cool!

I saw something similar in a TED talk roughly a decade ago. It made people in the audience think a soda can was being opened inside their head. You could hear their audible "AWWWS" as he swept the speaker through the audience.

Ham radio operators can occasionally experience this especially when using digital signal synthesizers. It is usually intermittent and occurs quite rapidly causing not only difficulty speaking but dizziness and nausea. I have both experienced it and heard others who sounded as though they were having a stroke and subsequently had a panic attack on air.

Something tells me that this is a bad idea.

He straight up called it a weapon.

When people ask if it can be used for evil, they dont mean by other citizens, they mean by a government. Nothing is too evil or expensive for a government.

When I was younger I was much more affected by this phenomenon, but a couple of decades of being very active in voice chat servers-one of the places where this effect commonly occurs simply by accident-and I am now very resistant to the effect, able to push through without much change to my speech patterns or cadence. However, pushing through the effect does require more focus than speaking normally, so I can still feel that the effect is present.

That what I need in my life something to stop me over thinking especially at night it’s driving me nuts. silence and lack of over thinking would be amazing.

Someone had a directional speaker like this last Halloween propped in their front yard playing whispers and as you walk by or up to their porch it. It was haunting to another level, gave me the creeps. So awesome!

Would be interesting to test people with / without an internal monologue. I hypothesize that the issue arises when hearing your internal monologue read it before you read it, then also hearing the feedback

I seen this 20 years ago in TIME Magazine! No idea why this tech hasn't slapped harder, having a "silent disco" with these on the ceiling beaming down your music selection to your personal 3'x3' square of a dancehall sounds like the best thing ever 🤘

im 17 seconds in and already overwhelmed with how badass and funny this tech is

I could see this as a mental training tool. Like learning how to focus your mind when distractions are all around you.

@RedMeansRecording was also able to do it, he just stoped by his own choice, but didn't stutter or misspronounced anything. Amazing.

There has to be at least one person who's speech skills are so well developed that they can't be stopped

Id be volunteering to this if I was there, it’s always a great opportunity to experiment with creative people, and most of all, fun!

The look in your eyes when you describe the Zoya thingamabob and it’s abilities is palpable. You are obviously very impressed with it…lol

This could be so useful for tuning rooms and hearing how certain frequencies are reflecting off of surfaces

Wow this explains everything !!! I used to be confused once when I did a public announcement, the speakers were delayed to the exact point that interferred my brain, but I managed to fight back and remain the coherency by simply ignoring outside voices, not a pleasant experience though hahaha

I toyed with an echo box several years ago & had to learn to not be jammed by my own speech delayed. It still paces my speech. Delayed, strobed (low frame rate) video of myself still tweaks my stomach.

I still find it mind-blowing that sound can hitch a ride on light

would love to see if it's possible to overcome the effect through practice. many autistic people (myself included) have tremendous difficulty isolating one person speaking when there are other sounds or voices present, but some can learn to overcome that with a lot of practice. it seems like that "tune out" ability should also be adaptable to tuning out your own delayed voice.

Reminds me of the story that individuals trying to get out of military service by claiming to be deaf were asked to talk whilst their voice was replayed to them with a short delay - they would end up talking slower and slower because they couldn't ignore that feedback.

There was an experiment we did in psychology where you had to read some visual prompts and not mess it up. I was the only one who could read them but I had a different response to the “weirdness”. I bet I could overcome this. Also, I could see it being used for evil but in a slower more destabilizing way: trying to take confidence away from an orator. Slow movements over time with every public address where then some would question the persons confidence and competency at their profession and leadership. It would be a clandestine weapon.

I get to deal with this a lot at work when i need to call the support team and they have me on speaker phone and i get to hear myself through their mike 2-5 seconds after i've just said something.

I used to investigate electronic harassment… you’d be shocked at the much more powerful systems used to stop people from speaking on specific topics when under clandestine surveillance…. Excellent video and experiment.

As someone with bad Auditory Processing Disorder who's brain generally "skips" every third word heard, I would LOVE to try this. I can't rely on hearing speech and so my brain has basically developed an auto correct feature to fill in the blanks. Another issue is I talk quiet and fairly slow, sometimes stuttering. I am SO curious to know if this would barely effect me or be horribly unbearable.

I remember seeing something similar being developed at the naval postgraduate institute about 13 years ago. But it was a LOT larger. You also had to stand underneath it

i love the message of silly experiments still being important! because they are!

As a musician who did a lot of (not very great) broadcast work in college, feedback delays like that are something you definitely learn to get past

I remember a couple of times where I was in a big auditorium and given an audience microphone to ask a question. As I started to speak, I heard my voice from the speakers, loud and delayed, and it really threw me off at first. I had to really concentrate on speaking my question while ignoring what I was hearing, and it took more effort than I expected. I would certainly not want to repeat that experience for any length of time.

I saw something like this once, the way it worked was they put noise cancelling headphones on someone and had them speak into a speaker, the headphones would them replay what they said with like a 1 second delay on it. Turns out if you hear what you're saying with such a delay it causes you to mess up talking.

I've done this (Sort of), where a friend worked at a radio station. He had me read some copy through a pitch-lowering effect. So I was hearing what I said in an increasing delay over the headphones, but 'hearing' my own voice inside my skull as I spoke. It was incredibly off-putting but you get the hang of it pretty quick to just push through anyway.

I work in a call centre and I cannot tell you how many times I've experienced this, often you get that echo on the phone and it really screws me up, it's so great to hear an explanation as to why! Thanks!

I've experienced this! There was an array of squares embedded into the ceiling above me at work, and when I stood beneath them I'd hear a distracting echo a split second after I spoke, and it always made it difficult to talk!

Biden doesn't even need the jammer.

Well done, you should consider using this device to aid in the curing of stuttering. Who knows, this could be exceptionally useful.

"I cannot express how uncomfortable feedback would be from a hypersonic sound array pointed at your head." *The Department of Defense has entered the chat*

Interesting that Keegan didn't like his own voice yet had a good voice for announcing and reading. I could see listening to podcasts narrated by him.

I think it would have been interesting to see what happens if you let the readers start reading with the jammer on. If they are already speaking and all of a sudden their hearing perception changes, it makes sense that someone would fumble their words while their brain tries to adapt to changing feedback.

Wild! When you said Kegen had one distinct attribute, my first guess would've been some kind of neurodivergence (particularly ADHD and/or dyslexia). Not being a musician makes total sense though! And I'd be interested in a more extensive study on how it affects people with different skills and also different mental conditions. Fascinating stuff!