Distributed Acoustic Conversation Shielding System

Walls have ears, or so the saying goes. Well, smart folks at MIT aim to debunk that by developing a secure conversation masking system which relies on a comprehensive system of power strips and sensors in order to drown out confidential conversations, regardless of whether you’re in a room or office environment. Known as the Distributed Acoustic Conversation Shielding System, all you need to do is make sure that room has a working power outlet to hook this up to – each of the special power strips come with a PIR infrared sensor, a microphone and a small speaker. Everyone in a private conversation will activate their personal sensor so that the system can ‘log’ them into the conversation, tracking their location as they walk from room to room, chatting away. Whoever approaches that does not have a sensor will alert the PIR in a nearby power strip, where it will immediately beam masking audio so that the private chat remains, well, private.