http://www.mlive.com/business/grpress/index.ssf?/base/business-0/1153838960251970.xml&coll=6
Babble: Annoying chant or invaluable office tool?
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
By Rob Kirkbride
The Grand Rapids Press
Herman Miller Inc. is banking on high performance and smartly designed
furniture to fuel growth.
And rightfully so. Residential furniture makers learned long ago it is
nearly impossible to compete with Asian manufacturers on price.
So when the Zeeland office-furniture maker came out with Babble last
year, I was intrigued.
I have tested the Babble for several months. It is the first product
created by Herman Miller's Creative Office group and sold through its
Sonare Technologies company.
The high-tech device creates privacy in open offices. Conversations once
open for all to hear are masked.
How it works
How is it done? Oddly enough, with more noise. Babble takes phonemes --
speech sounds -- and shuffles them like a deck of cards. The user's voice
is scrambled and broadcast through a pair of speakers at the same time
and in the same tone and volume as the actual speech.
The effect creates "a small crowd" babbling around your desk,
which is easier for neighbors to tune out than a single voice. Babble
tricks the potential eavesdropper's brain. Those trying to listen in
cannot sort out the real conversation from the "babble."
It is easy to use. When my telephone rings, I can pick up the headset and
tap a button on top of the Babble machine.
As I speak, the Babble transmits a scramble of my words out of two
speakers that sit on the ledge of my cubicle. As the volume of my voice
increases, so does the sound through the Babble speakers.
My nearest neighbor is business reporter Chris Knape. With the machine
on, he said he has a very hard time listening in on my conversations. The
back of his seat is less than two feet from the back of mine.
My unofficial test
If you want a device that masks conversations, Babble certainly works.
But if you use it, beware: You might alienate your nearby co-workers.
"It sounds like what I hear when my wife is trying to talk to
me," one reporter joked.
Others said it sounds scary -- like satanic babble from a movie such as
"Rosemary's Baby" or "The Exorcist."
I prefer to think of it as my own "mob of Rob," which might be
worse to some than a satanic chant. I don't exactly have a melodic voice.
With a price tag of $400, it probably would be a hard sell to the average
office dweller.
But for those who commonly relay private or sensitive information over
the phone, the device would be invaluable.
A Babble machine would be an excellent addition to human resource
departments, where medical and benefit information could be overheard.
Babble also would work well in law and medical offices.
We Hunt Spies, We Stop Espionage, We Kill
Bugs, and We Plug Leaks.
James M. Atkinson, President and Sr. Engineer
Granite Island Group
127 Eastern Avenue #291
Gloucester, MA 01930-8008
Phone: (978) 546-3803
Fax: (978) 546-9467
Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
E-Mail:
jm..._at_tscm.com
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:27 CST