speech jammer words

Researchers build 'SpeechJammer' gun that relays words back to the speaker in milliseconds

Researchers in japan have developed a device known as the speechjammer, which can pause human speech by recording and relaying their words back within milliseconds..

By Chris Welch , a reviewer specializing in personal audio and home theater. Since 2011, he has published nearly 6,000 articles, from breaking news and reviews to useful how-tos.

Source SpeechJammer (pdf) | Via MIT Technology Review

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Using fairly rudimentary tools, Japanese researchers have created a device which has proven effective at cutting off human speech without the need for physical intervention. The "SpeechJammer," as it's called, looks more like something a police officer would rely on to measure your speed as opposed to what it's actually built for.

How does it work, exactly? Essentially, the SpeechJammer uses our own words against us. It's generally understood that speech is easily interrupted (or "jammed") when our words are recorded and repeated back to us within milliseconds of initially being uttered. As explained in a paper by a pair of Japanese researchers, this artificial delay — known as Delayed Auditory Feedback — is said to have a direct impact on cognitive processess in the brain. The SpeechJammer takes that idea mobile.

An initial prototype combined a microphone and speaker within an acrylic case, which communicated with a host PC that handled delay and playback duties. Both the mic and speaker were directional, enabling the device to target a specific individual. It wasn't long before the researchers had a second SpeechJammer model, this time featuring a built-in motherboard that offered a tether-free experience. As for potential use cases, the paper cites public libraries and unruly discussions as examples of where such a device could come in handy. Sadly, there's no mention of plans to offer a commercial version of SpeechJammer. We wouldn't mind carrying one around for the occasional longwinded keynote presentation.

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The Sound Gun That Will Leave You Speechless

A new device uses an auditory phenomenon to silence people remotely

Joseph Stromberg

For those who have suffered sitting next to bad mannered talkers at movie theaters or endured distracting chatter at the library, a pair of researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Ochanomizu University have the device for you: the SpeechJammer. A paper published last week by Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada detailed the unusual invention, seemingly from the realm of science fiction. If silence is golden, the SpeechJammer is a modern-day Midas.

The SpeechJammer prototype can “jam” the voices of speakers as far as 100 feet away by using a phenomenon we know well from phone calls with an echo. When the gun’s user pulls the trigger, a sensitive directional microphone records the speech of the target, and a powerful directional speaker projects it right back at the target, fractions of a second later. Because it’s virtually impossible to talk when we’re hearing our own delayed words— a principle known as Delayed Auditory Feedback —the gun effectively leaves the target speechless.

The device’s capacity to jam speech was confirmed in a preliminary study with five participants. The researchers extol the device’s ability to precisely silence a single speaker from a distance, without causing any pain. “The system can disturb remote people’s speech without any physical discomfort,” they wrote. “Furthermore, this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker.”

Potential applications for the device are varied; the researchers suggest it could be used to enforce silence in settings like public libraries and trains, and moderate formal discussions or debates. ”Some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately interrupt other people when it is their turn in order to establish their presence rather than achieve more fruitful discussions,” the paper notes. At future political debates, perhaps, the SpeechJammer could be aimed at candidates who attempt to talk past the buzzer.

But across the blogosphere, writers have dreamed up other possible uses that are stranger, and perhaps a little unsettling. ”There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, sometimes further harming society,” the researchers argue.  Could audience members be remotely silenced by arrays of SpeechJammers ? Could crowds of protestors at a political rally be rendered silent at will ?

The effectiveness of the SpeechJammer has one exception, though: In the study, speakers were still able to emit meaningless sound sequences such as “ahhhh” when subject to the weapon. If nothing else, this will enable crowds of upset, silenced people to show their displeasure—by saying “booooooo.”

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Joseph Stromberg | | READ MORE

Joseph Stromberg was previously a digital reporter for Smithsonian .

Welcome! We need to run some audio Click to start

Speech Jammer

1. Plug your headphones

2. Allow the browser access to your microphone

3. Raise the volume of your headphones

4. Try talking like a sane person

Delay ( 150 ms)

Gain (x 1 )

Hypersonic Speech Jammer Works At A Distance

Speech jammers were a meme a little while back. By feeding back delayed voice audio to a person’s ears, it makes it near-impossible for most people to speak, as our speech system runs on a continual feedback loop. [Benn Jordan] decided to try reworking that concept by replacing headphones with a directed sound projector.

The key to the project is the use of hypersonic sound arrays. These essentially use high-frequency sound beyond the human range of hearing to carry a lower-frequency sound signal. By essentially modulating this higher-frequency carrier to create the perception of lower-frequency sound, it’s possible to create an audible signal that is highly directional. It’s like a “sound laser” that can be pointed directly at a person to allow them to hear it, which is then inaudible when pointed slightly away.

These allow the delayed voice signal to be fired at a person’s head with a relatively narrow spatial spread. When an individual speaks into a microphone hooked up to the device, delayed audio is sent through the hypersonic array back to the speaker’s ears, garbling their speech as their brain gets confused by the feedback.

[Benn] demonstrated the device in public by offering random individuals $100 to read a paragraph out of a book. The speech jammer worked a treat, and [Benn] was able to keep his money… until one amazingly immune individual breezed through the test. Check out our prior coverage of speech jamming technology. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Hyperific for the tip!]

19 thoughts on “ Hypersonic Speech Jammer Works At A Distance ”

Being deaf does have some perk. I can still speak decently with hearing aids turned off so I guess those speech jammer may not work on me.

I was born nearly profoundly deaf (hearing loss at 100dB at low frequency to 125dB at 3KHz, nothing above 3KHz) and with early education program and hearing aids I was able to learn to speak. The drawback of being deaf at my level is I can’t just listen to the sound and know what’s being spoken so radio, telephone, and other long distance conversation falls on my deaf ears (literal not proverbial). Because of this, sound jammer would seem to sound like gibberish to my ears and not interfere with my ability to read and speak.

You should go find this guy ;)

I have a slight hearing impairment too (nothing too bad) and when I tested this kind of speech jammers, it does annoy me, but I can plow through it without much hassle.

Hypersonic?

I think that was meant to be spelled “ultrasonic”. It still travels at the sound of speed, it just wiggles faster ;-)

While probably deadly effective, it’s definitely not advised to shoot the person at the podium with a rail gun.

To be fair, that would also be pretty effective at preventing speech. 😃

(Aside: isn’t the principle of this ultrasonic (not hypersonic) device similar to the method used by Lex Luthor in Superman 1 when he broadcast a message that only Superman could hear?)

I probably missed the cultural reference -if you’re making a joke-, but hypersonic is a field of engineering in which audible sound is generated using the interference of several supersonic waves.

That would be exclusively “American Technology Corporation HyperSonicTM Sound” because hypersonic refers to traveling more than 5 times the speed of sound.

I double check your tag for “speech jammer” the older article the tag was “speechjammer” no space so they don’t both show up on the tag pages for each other.

this would be useful for political debates. or riot control, shut down the rabble rousers. use for evil? yea probibly.

The best part is that for political debates, the speech is pregarbled.

This is like having to work with Motorola digital radios. The delay and sharp digital bandpass filter, I can “hear some words” and talking is difficult for many

I’ve seen some videos of people interacting with speech jammers, the ones with a lot of broadcast radio experience (people who routinely wear headphones and listen to themselves) are essentially immune to the jamming.

This is not new technology as “conspiracy theorists” will tell you. Think of Bose noise cancellation or the dual microphone setup you can see in The Grateful Dead Movie.

The jammer would have no effect on most politicians, they don’t appear to have any way to interrupt their own mouth.

For some politicians I think the main reason it does not work is, that the speech jammer is intended to confuse the brains. Which some people seem to lack :-)

Since most politicians seem to be pregarbled, maybe the garble function would make what they say make sense.

That would definitely confuse them.

Often some not so good handsfree telephone systems have this effect on me, when the echo cancellation is working only half way. This really confuse wehn you try to speak.

Reminds me when analog FXO cards was a thing for VOIP. You either had your echo cancellation right or the phone system was borderline unusable.

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A speech jammer is a device that inhibits a user from speaking in coherent sentences due to the user hearing their own voice played back to them with a slight delay.

The Navy Invented a Device to Prevent People From Talking

The system can get very sneaky by repeating anything a speaker says milliseconds after it’s said.

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• The Navy filed a patent for a device that makes it difficult for most people to speak.
• The device repeats anything a speaker says milliseconds after it’s said, disrupting a person’s concentration.
• The device is one of many types of nonlethal weapons designed to affect people without seriously injuring or killing them.

The U.S. Navy has invented a new device to prevent people from speaking, one that people with siblings will recognize instantly. The handheld acoustic hailing and disruption device records a person’s speech and spits it back out again, disrupting their concentration and discouraging them from speaking further. Although an interesting—and very familiar—concept it’s unlikely this tech will ever see use on the battlefield.

The patent filing describes the system like this:

According to an illustrative embodiment of the present disclosure, a target’s speech is directed back to them twice, once immediately and once after a short delay. This delay creates delayed auditory feedback (DAF), which alters the speaker’s normal perception of their own voice. In normal speech, a speaker hears their own words with a slight delay, and the body is accustomed to this feedback. By introducing another audio feedback source with a sufficiently long delay, the speaker's concentration is disrupted and it becomes difficult to continue speaking.

The patent filing even includes a link to this video, which demonstrates the process.

Anyone with a brother or sister will recognize this technology right away. AHAD is basically a computerized sibling, repeating whatever the speaker says immediately after he or she says it, in a funny or disturbing voice. The only difference is that a sibling does it simply to irritate another family member, while a government agency using the system might use it to shut down a riot or other unlawful assembly.

The system can get very sneaky, as the filing explains: “By utilizing directional microphones and speakers, only a target speaker’s voice will be picked up by the system, and only a target speaker will hear the transmitted audio.” A person targeted by AHAD might be stunned into silence by the technology and baffled that no one in their vicinity can hear what they’re hearing. Those around them might be equally baffled that the person has stopped speaking, seemingly without reason. In other words, it can make you think you’re crazy, and make people around you think you’re crazy.

The disruption technique works best if the machine repeats speech a syllable behind the speaker cadence. Oddly enough it doesn’t work at all for some people, perhaps those with Mick Jagger-levels of self confidence, and actually makes some people even better speakers. The effect is not consistent enough to make the technology worth pursuing beyond the laboratory.

The technology has some other applications. It can be used as a regular acoustic hailing device, perhaps to give instructions to another ship or initiate a conversation. More intriguingly, “ By aiming AHAD system at a wall or corner, AHAD system can also project sound to the target surface such that audio appears to originate from the target.”

AHAD falls under the category of nonlethal weapons systems, weapons designed to achieve a desired effect without causing permanent damage. The U.S. Navy has deployed other nonlethal sonic weapons, including the Long Range Acoustic Device, which can transmit focused sonic waves at very high decibel levels, causing pain. The pain causes people to flee an area, and can have lingering physical effects , including migraines and ringing in the ears, for up to a week.

— Read more at New Scientist

🎥 Now Watch This:

Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News , and others. He lives in San Francisco.

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Speech Jammer Brings Talkers' Brains to Stuttering Halt

Some people never know when to shut up during meetings, movies or while yammering away on the phone at public libraries. Now Japanese scientists have come up with a portable speech-jamming gun that forces obnoxious talkers to come to a stuttering halt.

The "SpeechJammer" device uses a direction-sensitive microphone and speaker to silence talkers with their own words — a psychological trick that creates a delay between the time talkers speak and the time when they hear the words coming out of their mouths. The hearing delay trips up the brain's thinking processes and causes the person to stutter.

It's like hacking people's minds, rather than using a cell phone jammer to disable talkers' mobile gadgets.

Such a clever gadget could impose a blessed silence in public spaces and at meetings, so that even the quietest people can take turns having their say or simply enjoy the lack of noise. The breakthrough was first reported by Technology Review , which threw in its own suggestion for installing the device at the United Nations.

A preliminary study showed that the speech jammer could easily shut up people doing a "reading news aloud" task, but had less success in silencing someone who was speaking a "spontaneous monologue." That's good news for people who hate long, boring prepared speeches, but perhaps less comforting for anyone who wants to shut up spontaneous talkers.

The Japanese researchers — Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University — see their invention as a conflict-resolution system that promotes peaceful dialogue.

But like any technology, there are obvious ways to abuse the speech jammer. Troublemakers could potentially use it to disrupt public speeches or at political rallies, making speakers stutter as painfully as Colin Firth during 2011's Oscar-winning film " The King's Speech ."

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On the bright side, the speech jammer fails to shut down meaningless sound sequences uttered by people. That allows anyone who has had enough of enforced silence or garbled talking to run away screaming "Aaaaaaaaaah!"

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily , a sister site to LiveScience. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @ News_Innovation , or on Facebook .

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The drone of speakers who won’t stop is an inevitable experience at conferences, meetings, cinemas, and public libraries. 

Today, Kazutaka Kurihara at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Koji Tsukada at Ochanomizu University, both in Japan, present a radical solution: a speech-jamming device that forces recalcitrant speakers into submission. 

The idea is simple. Psychologists have known for some years that it is almost impossible to speak when your words are replayed to you with a delay of a fraction of a second. 

Kurihara and Tsukada have simply built a handheld device consisting of a microphone and a speaker that does just that: it records a person’s voice and replays it to them with a delay of about 0.2 seconds. The microphone and speaker are directional, so the device can be aimed at a speaker from a distance, like a gun. 

In tests, Kurihara and Tsukada say their speech-jamming gun works well: “The system can disturb remote people’s speech without any physical discomfort.”  

Their tests also identify some curious phenomena. They say the gun is more effective when the delay varies in time and more effective against speech that involves reading aloud than against spontaneous monologue. Sadly, they report that it has no effect on meaningless sound sequences such as “aaaaarghhh.”

Kurihara and Tsukada make no claims about the commercial potential of their device but  list various applications. They say it could be used to maintain silence in public libraries and to “facilitate discussion” in group meetings. “We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking when speaking,” they say.   

That has important implications. “There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, ” they point out. 

Clearly, speech jamming has a significant future role in contributing to world peace and should obviously be installed at the United Nations with immediate effect. 

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September 21, 2012

IgNobel Prize winner in Acoustics: The SpeechJammer. The shut up machine for the passive aggressive.

By Scicurious

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

This year’s IgNobel prize in Acoustics went to Kruihara and Tsukada, of Japan, for an invention straight out of a sci fi movie: The SpeechJammer.

(clip from Spaceballs: we’ve been Jammed!)

Have you ever had to listen to someone who just won’t. Shut. Up. Have you ever been stuck in a library or on the quiet car of a train, giving passive aggressive dirty looks to talkative passerby? Well suffer no more from lack of silence! This speechjammer will solve all of your problems, using the power of SCIENCE.

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(Also comes in handheld!)

How does it work? How do you stop other people from talking without going “SHH!”. What you need is delayed auditory feedback. When we speak, we not only generate sound, but we rely on auditory feedback to make sure that what we are saying is coming out right. If we suffer problems with auditory feedback, such as a very short delay between the production of speech and hearing it, we will begin to stutter and eventually come to a stop.

So all you have to do if you want to shut someone up is induce some delayed auditory feedback. The designers of this device invented a microphone hooked up to a speaker, aimed at the person chattering (in the portable version, this looks a lot like those guns they use to track whether or not you’re speeding on the highway). The microphone records the chatter and induces a small delay (which you can control, depending on the distance from your target, so you get the maximal interference), and then plays your own voice back at you.

They even let me test it! And I have to say it's a very disconcerting experience. As one of the authors noted, we really don't like the sound of our own voice talking over us.

So what would be use of such a device? Well, apart from the obvious uses by passive aggressive people in quiet spaces, the author propose a potential use for helping to moderate things like group debate. When you need someone to shut up and given someone else a turn, you can turn the SpeechJammer on them and watch them lapse into silence. The psychological effects of the SpeechJammer on the person who want quiet should be pretty positive. But the psychological effects on those made to shut remains to be seen.

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The Noise Audio Recorders Won't Like

Audio jammers are popular tools used during confidential meetings. They produce a unique sound for masking and protecting conversations from external listening devices, such as a smartphone running an audio recording app, hidden in one of your guests' pocket.

The sound of a jammer should be very difficult to filter out or remove when present in an audio recording. While commercial audio jammers often rely on white noise , this generator, however, uses a more efficient sound with articulation similar to speech. It is also buried under severe distortion, which makes recovery algorithms have a hard time producing exploitable results.

For further privacy, increase the generator's volume to play louder than your voice. Then, if you are holding a conversation in person, speak quietly, and very close to your partner so they hear you over the sound.

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Japan invents speech-jamming gun that silences people mid-sentence

A view of the prototype speech jammer gun. (arXiv.org)

TOKYO – Japanese researchers have invented a speech-jamming gadget that painlessly forces people into silence.

Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University, developed a portable "SpeechJammer" gun that can silence people more than 30 meters away.

The device works by recording its target's speech then firing their words back at them with a 0.2-second delay, which affects the brain's cognitive processes and causes speakers to stutter before silencing them completely.

Describing the device in a research paper published Feb. 28 at arXiv.org, Kurihara and Tsukada wrote, "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 stopping speaking."

They found that the device works better on people who were reading aloud than engaged in "spontaneous speech" and it cannot stop people making meaningless sounds, such as "ahhh," that are uttered over a long time period.

Kurihara and Tsukada suggested the speech-jamming gun could be used to hush noisy speakers in public libraries or to silence people in group discussions who interrupt other people's speeches.

"There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts," the authors said.

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Speech Jamming Gun Freezes Any Talker Mid-Sentence

Want to be the kind of person who causes entire rooms to fall silent when you enter? Researchers from the...

By Clay Dillow | Published Mar 2, 2012 1:04 AM EST

Want to be the kind of person who causes entire rooms to fall silent when you enter? Researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and Ochanomizu University in Japan have created a speech jamming gun that takes the words right out of speakers’ mouths using a clever trick of psychology.

Psychologists have long known that for whatever reason, it’s very difficult to talk when your words are being immediately repeated to you. Not annoying-younger-sibling repeated to you, but spit back at you just a fraction after you’ve spoken. So by using a simple directional microphone and speaker device, the researchers have created a handheld “speech jammer” that records what a person is saying and repeats it back at them with a two-tenths-of-a-second delay.

In tests, the researchers said the device works well at a distance, rendering the person at the receiving end without causing any physical discomfort (nevermind the mental discomfort caused by suddenly being rendered mute). The only limitation is that it only works with words; meaningless syllables like those often expressed by pirates or onomatopoeia don’t necessarily work.

The researchers see it as a tool to maintain order in meetings or discussion groups where someone is trying to dominate the conversation. But the commercial applications are virtually endless, as there are obvious applications for anyone who ever plans to get into a relationship with another human being ever.

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Speech Jammer 4+

Speech jammer tongue twisters, dwight dickinson.

• 3.1 • 611 Ratings

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Speech Jammer echos your voice back using an adjustable delay, making it very difficult (or impossible) to talk. The more you spontaneously and continuously talk with the Speech Jammer, the harder talking becomes. This is known as Delayed Auditory Feedback or DAF. Think you're a smooth talker? The humour from one person experiencing the original Speech Jammer will quickly spread around the room, but the effect has to be experienced first-hand. Speech Jammer offers • Adjustable delay to impair speech • Tongue twisters to make it even more difficult • Ability to record Speech Jammer sessions • Share recordings with friends via iMessage, Text, E-Mail, Facebook, Twitter, copied link or iTunes • Compatibility with bluetooth headphones and AirPods • Ability to completely disable the delay and echo your voice back with almost no delay. Speech Jammer works best with noise cancelling headphones, and headphones with the microphone built-in. If you cannot get proper results, try adjusting the slider. Wired headphones are recommended. Having issues or have a suggestion? Please contact me by tapping App Support on the App Store page. I'm always open for suggestions, and can always use your help investigating crashes.

Version 5.1.5

Bug fixes and performance improvements. • Improves recording sharing reliability when using an IPv6 connection

Ratings and Reviews

611 Ratings

Now I did not use this app because well my phone died and I don’t feel like torturing myself with this app. Now people have almost passed out from this app. How? Idk but if a real doctor can tell me please tell me. I am not a doctor nor do I plan on becoming one but I really like medical things. Ty

I almost passed out!

I think this is a great app if you want to actually hear your voice but I was like saying stuff for a few minutes and I started to feel like I wanted to pass out so if you wanna like hear yourself talk you should definitely download this app but don’t use it for too long because you might pass out

It works great the one star reviews are from before bugs were fixed it is a funny way to talk to your friends or family it might give you a little headache so don’t use it for longer than an hour at a time

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March 2, 2012 report

Researchers develop 'SpeechJammer' gun that can quash human utterances

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine sitting around a conference table with several of your colleagues as you hold an important meeting. Now imagine your boss pulling out what looks like a radar gun for catching speeding motorists and aiming at any of you that speak to long, very nearly instantly causing whoever is speaking to start stuttering then mumbling and then to stop speaking at all. That’s the idea behind the SpeechJammer, a gun that can be fired at people to force them to stop speaking. It’s the brainchild of Koji Tsukada and Kazutaka Kurihara, science and technology researchers in Japan. They’ve published a paper describing how it works on the preprint server arXiv .

The idea is based on the fact that to speak properly, we humans need to hear what we’re saying so that we can constantly adjust how we go about it, scientists call it delayed auditory feedback. It’s partly why singers are able to sing better when they wear headphones that allow them to hear their own voice as they sing with music, or use feedback monitors when onstage. Trouble comes though when there is a slight delay between the time the words are spoken and the time they are heard. If that happens, people tend to get discombobulated and stop speaking, and that’s the whole idea behind the SpeechJammer. It’s basically just a gun that causes someone speaking to hear their own words delayed by 0.2 seconds.

To make that happen, the two attached a directional microphone and speaker to a box that also holds a laser pointer and distance sensor and of course a computer board to compute the delay time based on distance from the speaker. To make it work, the person using it points the gun at the person talking, using the laser pointer as a guide, then pulls the trigger. It works for distances up to a hundred feet.

The two say they have no plans to market the device, but because the technology is so simple, it’s doubtful they could patent it anyway. The idea though is likely to spread like wildfire. Surely it won’t be long before Oscar winners are jammed instead of herded offstage by increasing the music volume. Or hecklers in a crowd silenced at a moment’s notice. And just as surely human rights advocates will decry the use of such a device by politicians or government leaders, just as consumers will demand a much smaller version that will allow them to silence people that annoy them from afar, anonymously.

And after that, new laws will have to be written to govern their use, of course, because no matter how much people would like to force others to shut up, they’ll hate it just as much it when it’s pointed at them.

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. Furthermore, this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker. We utilize this phenomenon and implemented two prototype versions by combining a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, enabling the speech of a specific person to be disturbed. We discuss practical application scenarios of the system, such as facilitating and controlling discussions. Finally, we argue what system parameters should be examined in detail in future formal studies based on the lessons learned from our preliminary study.

© 2011 PhysOrg.com

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Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction

Title: speechjammer: a system utilizing artificial speech disturbance with delayed auditory feedback.

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. Furthermore, this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker. We utilize this phenomenon and implemented two prototype versions by combining a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, enabling the speech of a specific person to be disturbed. We discuss practical application scenarios of the system, such as facilitating and controlling discussions. Finally, we argue what system parameters should be examined in detail in future formal studies based on the lessons learned from our preliminary study.

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How Does A Speech Jammer Gun Works And Its Purpose

• Art & Technology

Every one of us has been in a scenario when we needed an annoying individual or group to shut up but couldn’t. Perhaps those days are long gone. Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University created the ‘Speech Jammer Gun.’ This gadget completely silences its user.

Page Contents

How Does A Speech Jammer Gun Works

The weapon has a microphone that catches the target’s voice and then plays it back to them over a speaker with a very short delay (just a few microseconds) to drown them out. A laser pointer and range sensor are mounted on the top of the Jammer to aim at a person’s lips and determine how much time must pass before “feedback” is received. A PIC18F152 and a BU9262AFS Audio IC, both standard components of karaoke machines, form the core of this device.

However, the mechanism is more psychological than technical since most individuals go silent after hearing their speech (like listening to a tape of your voice). The Speech Jammer gun is most effective at around 98 feet when somebody reads aloud from a book or other printed material.

The gadget has no adverse effects on its intended victim and may assist those who stammer to become more fluent in their speech. The Speech Jammer is based on the same principle as other therapy devices used to treat stammering, which is auditory feedback. If only it could penetrate walls and silence my noisy neighbors!

Purpose Of Speech Jammer Gun

Researchers claim their device is useable to silence patrons in places like libraries. However, in a published publication, they reveal much more ambitious goals:

We have to set and observe standards for appropriate turn-taking while speaking. However, some individuals prefer to stretch their rounds or actively interrupt others when it is time to establish their presence rather than produce more constructive dialogues . Moreover, some audiences often jeer at presenters to discredit them.

“In other words,” adds ExtremeTech.com, “this speech-jamming rifle was developed to compel ‘proper’ conversations.”

Such an ingenious device would allow for a sanctified hush to be maintained in public places and at business meetings, allowing even the most reserved individuals to speak their minds and listen to those of their colleagues in turn.

Japanese Scientists Develop Speech Jammer Gun

The gadget fires the irritating sound right back at the originator. Users must point the device at their intended victim and pull the trigger.

According to the paper’s authors, “in general, the human voice is jammed by sending back to the presenters their own words with a lag of several hundred milliseconds.” Put another way, “this impact may annoy individuals without physical pain, and it dissipates quickly by ceasing speaking.”

The researchers used Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) to coerce the brain into giving in to their voice demands. The premise here is that speech involves more than simply making noise. Speech is an essential part of the mental process. The term for this is “audio feedback.”

“When the auditory input is intentionally delayed, it clogs up our natural speech. This lag is likely to affect our cognition, the study’s authors concluded.

If you hear your voice back with a delay of “a few hundred milliseconds,” it is very difficult to form coherent sentences.

The end product sounds and feels a lot like stuttering. A “physically unimpaired” individual may stammer as a result of DAF. In a twist of irony, DAF may also aid in reducing stuttering. There are currently medical DAF devices available for use in this setting.

So, after reading this post, you know how a speech jammer gun works. Japanese researchers make it to shut up unwanted sounds or people. It is an amazing invention that you can carry with you.

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• Board index Other Off Topic

What Should I Say Into A Speech Jammer?

Post by ElectroYoshi » Fri Sep 18, 2015 3:06 am

Post by Bad At Gravity » Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:01 am

Post by Entity » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:02 am

Post by Phantomboy » Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:24 am

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
• To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
• To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
• To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
• To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

Post by Bad At Gravity » Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:31 pm

Post by Rabbidfan236 » Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:52 pm

Post by ElectroYoshi » Sat Sep 19, 2015 1:41 am

Post by papaya » Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:12 am

Post by Sebastian Lawe » Sun Sep 20, 2015 1:35 am

Post by ElectroYoshi » Mon Sep 21, 2015 2:40 pm

Post by Entity » Mon Sep 21, 2015 2:55 pm

Post by Phantomboy » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:51 pm

Post by ElectroYoshi » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:21 pm

Post by Miniike » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:37 pm

Sebastian Lawe wrote: Do the famous "to be or not to be" speech from Hamlet.

Post by Bad At Gravity » Thu Sep 24, 2015 10:40 pm

Post by ElectroYoshi » Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:22 am

Post by Bad At Gravity » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:20 pm

Post by Miniike » Fri Oct 02, 2015 2:36 pm

Post by ElectroYoshi » Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:06 pm

Post by bionicnacho » Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:44 am

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Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. SILENCE: How would the speech jammer work in these places? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

4. JAMMING: Students A strongly believe a speech jammer is very useful; Students B strongly believe it isn’t useful.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations. 5. BE QUIET: Who would you most like to use the speech jammer on? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Change partners and share your rankings again.

6. GADGET: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘gadget’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

Two Japanese inventors have ___________________ that can stop someone from talking. The device they call the Speech Jammer ___________________ speech. It prevents a speaker from getting the words out of his or her mouth. Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology _____________________ "gun" that is pointed at someone from a distance and stops them talking. It does ___________________ the person it hits. The technology is ___________________ devices used to help people with speech problems such as stuttering. It uses a system called Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) that plays someone’s voice back to them at ___________________. Messrs. Tsukada and Kurihara said they ___________________ something that would stop people talking too much in discussions. They wrote: “We have to establish and _____________________ turn-taking. However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or ___________________ other people when it is their turn rather than achieve more fruitful discussions.” They added: “We utilized DAF to develop a device that can remotely jam ___________________ people's speech whether they want it or not.” Other uses of their device include ___________________ in public libraries and aiding peace-making. “There are still many cases in which the negative aspects of speech become a barrier to the peaceful ___________________,” they said.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘speech’ and ‘jam’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

SPEECH JAMMING SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about speech jamming in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

SPEECH JAMMING DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

Two Japanese inventors have (1) ____ a gadget that can stop someone from talking. The device they call the Speech Jammer (2) ____ jams people’s speech. It prevents a speaker from (3) ____ the words out of his or her mouth. Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology developed the prototype "gun" that is pointed at someone from a (4) ____ and stops them talking. It does not physically harm the person it hits. The technology is based (5) ____ medical devices used to help people with speech problems such as stuttering. It uses a system called Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) that plays someone’s voice back to them at a (6) ____-second delay. Messrs. Tsukada and Kurihara said they wanted to create something that would stop people talking too much in discussions. They wrote: “We have to establish and (7) ____ rules for proper turn-taking. However, some people (8) ____ to lengthen their turns or (9) ____ disrupt other people when it is their turn (10) ____ than achieve more fruitful discussions.” They added: “We utilized DAF to develop a device that can remotely jam physically unimpaired people's speech (11) ____ they want it or not.” Other uses of their device include maintaining silence in public libraries and aiding peace-making. “There are still many cases in which the negative aspects (12) ____ speech become a barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” they said. Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

Write about speech jamming for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about the speech jammer device. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. SPEECH JAMMING: Make a poster about speech jamming. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. DEVICE: Write a magazine article about the speech jammer. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against it. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). 5. LETTER: Write a letter to the inventors. Ask them three questions about the speech jammer. Give them three ideas on how it could be used. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

Speech jammer devices stops people talking

Two Japanese inventors have (1) unveiled a gadget that can stop someone from talking. The (2) device they call the Speech Jammer literally jams people’s speech. It (3) prevents a speaker from getting the words out of his or her mouth. Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology developed the (4) prototype "gun" that is pointed at someone from a (5) distance and stops them talking. It does not physically harm the person it hits. The technology is (6) based on medical devices used to help people with speech problems such as (7) stuttering. It uses a system called Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) that plays someone’s voice back to them at a split-second (8) delay. Messrs. Tsukada and Kurihara said they wanted to (9) create something that would stop people talking too much in discussions. They wrote: “We have to establish and (10) obey rules for proper turn-taking. However, some people (11) tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately disrupt other people when it is their turn rather than achieve more (12) fruitful discussions.” They added: “We utilized DAF to develop a device that can remotely jam (13) physically unimpaired people's speech whether they want it or not.” Other uses of their device include maintaining (14) silence in public libraries and aiding peace-making. “There are still many cases in which the (15) negative aspects of speech become a (16) barrier to the peaceful resolution of conflicts,” they said. LANGUAGE WORK

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The Method Behind Trump’s Mistruths

A close examination of every public word from the former president during a crucial week of his campaign.

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His words focused heavily on attacking his political rivals, self-aggrandizing and stoking fear to make his case for 2024. In doing so, Mr. Trump often relied on repeated falsehoods and half-truths. He has yet to deviate from this approach in the general election.

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He grossly distorts his opponents’ records and proposals to make them sound unreasonable.

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And think of it, for four years we had no terror problem .

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We had the best economy. We had no inflation .

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We had gasoline at $1. 87 .

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These are all Biden indictments .

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I’ve been indicted more than Alphonse Capone .

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He describes the United States as a nation in ruins.

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For all Trump’s populist rhetoric in 2016, his presidency proved to be business-friendly. But Trump and those around him are signaling that a second term would be different .

It’s usually a given that Republicans will win voters 65 and over, but that’s not the case in this election. Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst, explains Biden’s strength among seniors .

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Trump’s bizarre, vindictive incoherence has to be heard in full to be believed

Excerpts from his speeches do not do justice to Trump’s smorgasbord of vendettas, non sequiturs and comparisons to famous people

Donald Trump’s speeches on the 2024 campaign trail so far have been focused on a laundry list of complaints, largely personal, and an increasingly menacing tone.

He’s on the campaign trail less these days than he was in previous cycles – and less than you’d expect from a guy with dedicated superfans who brags about the size of his crowds every chance he gets. But when he has held rallies, he speaks in dark, dehumanizing terms about migrants, promising to vanquish people crossing the border. He rails about the legal battles he faces and how they’re a sign he’s winning, actually. He tells lies and invents fictions. He calls his opponent a threat to democracy and claims this election could be the last one.

Trump’s tone, as many have noted, is decidedly more vengeful this time around, as he seeks to reclaim the White House after a bruising loss that he insists was a steal. This alone is a cause for concern, foreshadowing what the Trump presidency redux could look like. But he’s also, quite frequently, rambling and incoherent, running off on tangents that would grab headlines for their oddness should any other candidate say them.

Journalists rightly chose not to broadcast Trump’s entire speeches after 2016, believing that the free coverage helped boost the former president and spread lies unchecked. But now there’s the possibility that stories about his speeches often make his ideas appear more cogent than they are – making the case that, this time around, people should hear the full speeches to understand how Trump would govern again.

Watching a Trump speech in full better shows what it’s like inside his head: a smorgasbord of falsehoods, personal and professional vendettas, frequent comparisons to other famous people, a couple of handfuls of simple policy ideas, and a lot of non sequiturs that veer into barely intelligible stories.

Curiously, Trump tucks the most tangible policy implications in at the end. His speeches often finish with a rundown of what his second term in office could bring, in a meditation-like recitation the New York Times recently compared to a sermon. Since these policies could become reality, here’s a few of those ideas:

Instituting the death penalty for drug dealers.

Creating the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act”: “If China or any other country makes us pay 100% or 200% tariff, which they do, we will make them pay a reciprocal tariff of 100% or 200%. In other words, you screw us and we’ll screw you.”

Indemnifying all police officers and law enforcement officials.

Rebuilding cities and taking over Washington DC, where, he said in a recent speech, there are “beautiful columns” put together “through force of will” because there were no “Caterpillar tractors” and now those columns have graffiti on them.

Issuing an executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.

Moving to one-day voting with paper ballots and voter ID.

This conclusion is the most straightforward part of a Trump speech and is typically the extent of what a candidate for office would say on the campaign trail, perhaps with some personal storytelling or mild joking added in.

But it’s also often the shortest part.

Trump’s tangents aren’t new, nor is Trump’s penchant for elevating baseless ideas that most other presidential candidates wouldn’t, like his promotion of injecting bleach during the pandemic.

But in a presidential race among two old men that’s often focused on the age of the one who’s slightly older, these campaign trail antics shed light on Trump’s mental acuity, even if people tend to characterize them differently than Joe Biden’s. While Biden’s gaffes elicit serious scrutiny, as writers in the New Yorker and the New York Times recently noted, we’ve seemingly become inured to Trump’s brand of speaking, either skimming over it or giving him leeway because this has always been his shtick.

Trump, like Biden, has confused names of world leaders (but then claims it’s on purpose ). He has also stumbled and slurred his words. But beyond that, Trump’s can take a different turn. Trump has described using an “iron dome” missile defense system as “ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. They’ve only got 17 seconds to figure this whole thing out. Boom. OK. Missile launch. Whoosh. Boom.”

These tangents can be part of a tirade, or they can be what one can only describe as complete nonsense.

During this week’s Wisconsin speech, which was more coherent than usual, Trump pulled out a few frequent refrains: comparing himself, incorrectly , to Al Capone, saying he was indicted more than the notorious gangster; making fun of the Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis’s first name (“It’s spelled fanny like your ass, right? Fanny. But when she became DA, she decided to add a little French, a little fancy”).

He made fun of Biden’s golfing game, miming how Biden golfs, perhaps a ding back at Biden for poking Trump about his golf game. Later, he called Biden a “lost soul” and lamented that he gets to sit at the president’s desk. “Can you imagine him sitting at the Resolute Desk? What a great desk,” Trump said.

One muddled addition in Wisconsin involved squatters’ rights, a hot topic related to immigration now: “If you have illegal aliens invading your home, we will deport you,” presumably meaning the migrant would be deported instead of the homeowner. He wanted to create a federal taskforce to end squatting, he said.

“Sounds like a little bit of a weird topic but it’s not, it’s a very bad thing,” he said.

These half-cocked remarks aren’t new; they are a feature of who Trump is and how he communicates that to the public, and that’s key to understanding how he is as a leader.

The New York Times opinion writer Jamelle Bouie described it as “something akin to the soft bigotry of low expectations”, whereby no one expected him to behave in an orderly fashion or communicate well.

Some of these bizarre asides are best seen in full, like this one about Biden at the beach in Trump’s Georgia response to the State of the Union:

“Somebody said he looks great in a bathing suit, right? And you know, when he was in the sand and he was having a hard time lifting his feet through the sand, because you know sand is heavy, they figured three solid ounces per foot, but sand is a little heavy, and he’s sitting in a bathing suit. Look, at 81, do you remember Cary Grant? How good was Cary Grant, right? I don’t think Cary Grant, he was good. I don’t know what happened to movie stars today. We used to have Cary Grant and Clark Gable and all these people. Today we have, I won’t say names, because I don’t need enemies. I don’t need enemies. I got enough enemies. But Cary Grant was, like – Michael Jackson once told me, ‘The most handsome man, Trump, in the world.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Cary Grant.’ Well, we don’t have that any more, but Cary Grant at 81 or 82, going on 100. This guy, he’s 81, going on 100. Cary Grant wouldn’t look too good in a bathing suit, either. And he was pretty good-looking, right?”

Or another Hollywood-related bop, inspired by a rant about Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s romantic relationship:

“It’s a magnificent love story, like Gone With the Wind. You know Gone With the Wind, you’re not allowed to watch it any more. You know that, right? It’s politically incorrect to watch Gone With the Wind. They have a list. What were the greatest movies ever made? Well, Gone With the Wind is usually number one or two or three. And then they have another list you’re not allowed to watch any more, Gone With the Wind. You tell me, is our country screwed up?”

He still claims to have “done more for Black people than any president other than Abraham Lincoln” and also now says he’s being persecuted more than Lincoln and Andrew Jackson:

“ All my life you’ve heard of Andrew Jackson, he was actually a great general and a very good president. They say that he was persecuted as president more than anybody else, second was Abraham Lincoln. This is just what they said. This is in the history books. They were brutal, Andrew Jackson’s wife actually died over it.”

You not only see the truly bizarre nature of Trump’s speeches when viewing them in full, but you see the sheer breadth of his menace and animus toward those who disagree with him.

His comments especially toward migrants have grown more dehumanizing. He has said they are “poisoning the blood” of the US – a nod at Great Replacement Theory, the far-right conspiracy that the left is orchestrating migration to replace white people. Trump claimed the people coming in were “prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients and terrorists, the worst they have”. He has repeatedly called migrants “animals”.

“Democrats said please don’t call them ‘animals’. I said, no, they’re not humans, they’re animals,” he said during a speech in Michigan this week.

“In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion,” he said during his March appearance in Ohio. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. “These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it,” he said.

And he has turned more authoritarian in his language, saying he would be a “dictator on day one” but then later said it would only be for a day. He’s called his political enemies “vermin”: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” he said in New Hampshire in late 2023.

At a speech in March in Ohio about the US auto industry he claimed there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost, which some interpreted as him claiming there would be violence if he loses the election.

Trump’s campaign said later that he meant the comment to be specific to the auto industry, but now the former president has started saying Biden created a “border bloodbath” and the Republican National Committee created a website to that effect as well.

It’s tempting to find a coherent line of attack in Trump speeches to try to distill the meaning of a rambling story. And it’s sometimes hard to even figure out the full context of what he’s saying, either in text or subtext and perhaps by design, like the “bloodbath” comment or him saying there wouldn’t be another election if he doesn’t win this one.

But it’s only in seeing the full breadth of the 2024 Trump speech that one can truly understand what kind of president he could become if he won the election.

“It’s easiest to understand the threat that Trump poses to American democracy most clearly when you see it for yourself,” Susan B Glasser wrote in the New Yorker. “Small clips of his craziness can be too easily dismissed as the background noise of our times.”

If you ask Trump himself, of course, these are just examples that Trump is smart.

“The fake news will say, ‘Oh, he goes from subject to subject.’ No, you have to be very smart to do that. You got to be very smart. You know what it is? It’s called spot-checking. You’re thinking about something when you’re talking about something else, and then you get back to the original. And they go, ‘Holy shit. Did you see what he did?’ It’s called intelligence.”

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Parents of Michigan school shooter sentenced

By Antoinette Radford and Maureen Chowdhury , CNN

Parents of school shooter sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison. Here's what happened in court today

From CNN staff

The  parents of the teenager who killed four students  in the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison Tuesday, weeks after being convicted of manslaughter.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, who each had faced up to 15 years in prison, have already been imprisoned for more than two years since their arrest in a Detroit warehouse days after the shooting. Though they were tried separately, their sentencing took place together in an Oakland County courtroom.

They are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child as the nation continues to grapple with the scourge of gunfire on campus and mass shootings.

Here's what everyone said in court today:

• Several family members of the four students killed in the shooting delivered emotional victim impact statements before the judge handed down the sentencing. The mother of Justin Shilling said "the ripple effects of both James and Jennifer's failures to act" to prevent their son from carrying out the deadly shooting " have devastated us all ." The father of Hana St. Juliana said the Crumbleys continue to deflect blame , adding his daughter's death "destroyed a large portion of my very soul."
• Jennifer Crumbley began her statement to the court on Tuesday by expressing her condolences to the victims and their families. She also said a previous statement that she made on the stand in her own defense  during her trial in Februar y was "completely misunderstood." Jennifer Crumbley previously said, “I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently, and I wouldn’t have.” Now, before sentencing, she said if she knew her son was capable of the crimes committed, her answer would have "absolutely been different."
• James Crumbley apologized to the victims , something he said he had not been able to do yet. He said he was not aware his son was planning a school shooting, and he asked the judge, "sentence me in a fair way."
• Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald urged the judge to exceed the sentencing guidelines for the Crumbleys and to consider the "devastating impact of their gross negligence that was foreseeable." In separate pre-sentencing memos, the attorneys for the parents asked for them  to be sentenced  to less than five years in prison.
• Judge Cheryl Matthews said the decision should be a deterrent to try to stop school shootings in the future. She pointed to James and Jennifer Crumbley's lack of action, saying, “These convictions confirm repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train."

Crumbley case sets a precedent on who can be held accountable for a mass shooting

From CNN's Celina Tebor

The historic trials, and stunning verdicts, of James and Jennifer Crumbley  tested the limits of who can be held responsible for a mass shooting.

The prosecution of both parents, and an uptick in other criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits tied to mass shootings, indicates attorneys are increasingly seeking to hold responsible people — and companies — who didn’t pull the trigger .

Prosecutors over the past few years have been slowly, but steadily, expanding the notion of who can be held accountable for a mass shooting, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, said last month.

While he cautioned each case rests on its own merits, "we’ve seen groundbreaking prosecutions of parents and security personnel," he said, "and I’d expect that trend to continue."

The question remains whether prosecution of non-shooters will be effective in reducing the number of mass shootings in the United States. But undoubtedly, it has expanded prosecutors’ tool boxes, according to Ekow Yankah, law professor at the University of Michigan.

“It gives different prosecutors something to aim at – it gives them a new theory, it gives them something to try,” he told CNN. “It gives prosecutors who are frustrated, are facing a devastating crime, a mass shooting that’s hurt their community, some set of actions that they can take.”

Read about some other high-profile prosecutions of non-shooters in recent years.

Prosecutor says she is disappointed James and Jennifer Crumbley did not express remorse

From CNN’s Nicki Brown 

The lead prosecutor in James and Jennifer Crumbley's criminal trials said it was "disappointing" that the parents didn't express remorse.

"Feeling bad is natural, and we don't dispute that they feel bad ... that's not what's important to victims of crime," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said to reporters after the Crumbleys' sentencing Tuesday. "What they want and need most of all is remorse, which means acknowledgment of the wrongdoing and some sort of reconciliation or apology for that — and that didn't come."

The prosecutor said she didn't think that the case would set a precedent for parents of other school shooters.

"There's a difference between precedent-setting and rare, and this is really a rare set of facts, it really is," McDonald said. 

"Most of us know that you have to exercise reasonable care at least to prevent other people from the dangers that you know are foreseeable," she added.

She said her team did the "absolute best" they could, and the victim's families know that.

"It's really hard ... to remark about how hard we work and how hard it's been when you're looking in the eyes of these parents every day, who get up in unbelievable pain and grief and see this play out every day and they still go on," she said. "And so, my focus is there."

James and Jennifer Crumbley each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison

James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teenager who killed four students in a 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison, respectively, weeks after they were convicted of manslaughter.

They will receive credit for 858 days already served.

Sentence for Crumbleys should be a deterrent, judge says

From CNN's Elise Hammond

The judge presiding over the sentencing of James and Jennifer Crumbley said the decision should be a deterrent to try to stop school shootings in the future.

"Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder, and was ignored," Judge Cheryl Matthews said. "No one answered and these two people should have and sure didn’t."

She said she is "aware of my job in this situation” and promised not to be “swayed by public opinion” when handing down the sentencing decision.

Talking to the families in the courtroom, Matthews said she could never understand the pain they are experiencing, but reassured them, “I saw what you saw and I heard what you heard” during the trials.

Prosecutor urges judge to consider the "devastating impact" of the Crumbleys' "gross negligence"

From CNN's Nicki Brown

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald urged Judge Cheryl Matthews to exceed the sentencing guidelines for James and Jennifer Crumbley, asking the judge to consider the "devastating impact of their gross negligence that was foreseeable."

"I want to be clear, remorse does not sound like, 'I feel really bad.' I'm sure they do. I don't dispute they feel bad, I don't dispute they have grief. That's not the kind of remorse and accountability these victims are looking for," McDonald said in court Tuesday.

She continued, addressing the judge:

"When fashioning a sentence, it is absolutely critical that you listen and consider the impact of what that gross negligence caused. So we're asking you to exceed the guidelines because I believe all of the factors pursuant to the case law, with the necessary consideration of the impact of these crimes, justifies you to do. We're asking you, the people are asking you, to consider the devastating impact of their gross negligence that was foreseeable."

James Crumbley apologizes to the families of his son's victims

From CNN's Antoinette Radford

James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, addressed the courtroom, opening his statement by apologizing to the victims, something he said he had not been able to do yet.

"I want to say I can't imagine the pain and agony ... for the families that have lost their children and what they are experiencing and what they are going through. As a parent, our biggest fear is losing our child or our children, and to lose a child is unimaginable. My heart is really broken for everybody involved," he said.

"I really want the families of Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St Juliana, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling to know how truly sorry I am, and how devastated I was when I heard what happened to them," Crumbley said.

Crumbley added that he was not aware his son was planning a school shooting, and he asked Judge Cheryl Matthews to "sentence me in a fair way."

Jennifer Crumbley says previous statement made in court was misinterpreted

From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury

Jennifer Crumbley began her statement to the court by expressing her condolences to the victims and their families.

"I sit here today to express my deepest sorrows for the families of Hana, Tate, Madisyn, Justin and to all those affected on November 30, 2021," she said.

Crumbley said that a previous statement made on the stand was "completely misunderstood."

When she took the stand in her own defense during her trial in Februar y, she had said, “I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently, and I wouldn’t have.”

On Tuesday, Crumbley said that she did not foresee the actions of her son and therefore would not have done anything different, and that is how she interpreted the question.

"With the benefit of hindsight and information I have now, my answer would be drastically different," she said.

Crumbley added that if she knew her son was capable of the crimes committed, her answer would have "absolutely been different."

 Father of Hana St. Juliana says Crumbleys "choose to blame everyone but themselves"

James and Jennifer Crumbley continue to deflect blame, the father of a victim of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting said at the Crumbleys' sentencing Tuesday.

"The defendants, through their choices, through their indifference and gross negligence, enabled their son to murder my daughter Hana and three other children," Steve St. Juliana, the father of Hana St. Juliana, said in a victim impact statement Tuesday.

"They chose to stay quiet. They chose to ignore the warning signs. And now, as we've heard through all of the objections, they continue to choose to blame everyone but themselves," he said.

Steve St. Juliana said his daughter's death "destroyed a large portion of my very soul."

"I will never think back fondly on her high school and college graduations. I will never walk her down the aisle as she begins the journey of starting her own family. I am forever denied the chance to hold her or her future children in my arms," he added.

St. Juliana said his position on the Crumbleys' sentencing evolved throughout the trial as the defendants' "defiance" increased. "Hana, Madisyn, Tate, and Justin are the ones who have lost everything — not the defendants," he said before requesting the parents receive the maximum possible sentence.

Buck Myre, the father of victim Tate Myre, gave his impact statement following Steve St. Juliana. He was the last person to give an impact statement.

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Zach Edey, Dan Hurley exchange words in first half of Purdue-UConn NCAA championship game

UConn coach Dan Hurley is never one to conceal his emotions in the heat of competition, a trait that has come to define him just as much as his overwhelming success with the Huskies the past two seasons.

In his team’s national championship game Monday against Purdue at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, that zeal went beyond the referees and to an opposing player. And not just any opposing player.

REQUIRED READING: LIVE: Purdue vs. UConn score updates, highlights in Final Four championship game

With about seven minutes remaining in the first half and with the teams tied at 23, Boilermakers star center Zach Edey set what Hurley thought was an illegal screen to free up teammate Braden Smith at the top of the key.

During the ensuing media timeout, Hurley came out on the court near the spot of the pick to argue the call, but he did so as Edey passed by on his walk back to the Purdue huddle. The reigning two-time national player of the year said something to Hurley , who turned his head and fired back at Edey.

FOLLOW THE MADNESS: NCAA tournament brackets, scores, schedules, teams and more.

The 7-foot-4 Edey had been a source of ire for Hurley in the game’s early stages. At one point in the first half, Hurley yelled at officials about Edey, pointing to the Toronto native on the bench and saying, “He’s pushing us!”

At least some of the frustration from the newly minted Naismith Coach of the Year had to do with Edey’s effective play against the Huskies. In the opening 14:03 of the game, Edey had 16 points, four rebounds and two blocks.

In the leadup to the title game, Hurley was highly complimentary of Edey , going as far to say as he is the best college basketball player he has ever seen.

Edey and Purdue are seeking to win the first national championship in program history while UConn is aiming to become the first repeat national champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007.

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Dawn Staley Broke Down in Tears in Emotional Postgame Interview After South Carolina’s Title Win Over Iowa

• Author: Kristen Wong

In this story:

The women’s NCAA tournament wrapped up on Sunday with a fairytale ending for Dawn Staley and the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks , who beat the Iowa Hawkeyes, 87—75, to secure its third national title in school history and become the 10th undefeated champion in Division I history.

After the final whistle, Staley struggled to find the words to describe what she was feeling and needed a minute to compose herself. In the postgame interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, the Gamecocks coach teared up on camera and appeared to be completely overwhelmed with emotions.

“I’m so proud, so proud,” Staley told Rowe. “I am so incredibly happy for our players. It doesn’t always end like you want it to end, much like last year… I’m just super proud of where I work, I’m super proud of our fans. It’s awesome. It’s unbelievable.”

Dawn Staley was very emotional in an interview with ESPN on ABC's Holly Rowe after South Carolina won the National Championship. 🏀🏆 pic.twitter.com/Pk7JmutV1D — Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 7, 2024

This past season, Staley’s Gamecocks bulldozed their way to a perfect 38-0 record one year after falling short to Iowa in the Final Four. Despite trailing Iowa by as many as 11 points in the first quarter, South Carolina avenged last year’s semifinals loss with an all-around dominant performance in which four players recorded double figures; freshman Tessa Johnson led the way with 19 points while star center Kamilla Cardoso had 15 points and 17 rebounds.

Staley, the AP Coach of the Year, now boasts a 109—3 record in her last three seasons at South Carolina and becomes the fifth coach to win three championships, joining Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Tara VanDerveer.

“You have to let young people be who they are,” continued Staley. “But you also have to guide them and help navigate them. When young people lock in and have a belief and have a trust, and their parents have that same trust, this is what can happen. They made history. They etched their names into history books.”

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Trump calls migrants 'animals,' intensifying focus on illegal immigration

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Reporting by Tim Reid and Nathan Layne, additional reporting by Nandita Bose; editing by Ross Colvin, Mary Milliken, Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman

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Washington-based correspondent covering campaigns and Congress. Previously posted in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, and has reported extensively throughout Latin America. Co-winner of the 2021 Reuters Journalist of the Year Award in the business coverage category for a series on corruption and fraud in the oil industry. He was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College.

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Ecuador's former vice president Glas on hunger strike, lawyer says

Ecuador's former vice president Jorge Glas is on a hunger strike at a prison in Guayaquil to protest his arrest, his lawyer Sonia Vera said in a message posted on X on Wednesday.

Peru will not require Mexican visitors to secure a visa to visit the South American nation, officials said on Wednesday, in a reversal after insisting last week it would match Mexico's newly-approved visa requirement for Peruvian visitors.

A man armed with a knife fatally stabbed one person and wounded another on Wednesday in the French southwestern city of Bordeaux, a government source briefed on the attack said.