6 ms·

Automated shusher keeps conference loudmouths in line

39 points by gumby 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
krisoft 4y ago
But wouldn't that also shush the presenter?
- gumby 4y ago
  Wouldn’t that be good? Sometimes I talk too much in my own meetings.
  - krisoft 4y ago
    > Sometimes I talk too much in my own meetings. That is a problem indeed, but this doesn't solve that. You can talk as much as you want as long as the volume is low enough.
astockwell 4y ago
My years on this blue ball have repeatedly taught me that technical solutions meant to "correct" human interpersonal problems don't usually work out how they're intended. They initially _work_, but humans rebel against them and the problem ends up compounded. Reminds me of traffic cameras.
- halfnormalform 4y ago
  On the Log Ride at Knott's Berry Farm they have infrared light beams above the log flume that trigger a loud pre-recorded "Sit down!" message if you raise your hands up too high. It was so much fun in Jr High to try and set them all off.
  - frebord 4y ago
    Makes me think of the digital speed limit signs that start to flash red and blue when you hit 10 mph over the limit. Like of course every 16 year old kid ever is trying to make them flash red and blue and also me at 32.
    - Veen 4y ago
      In the UK, we have signs that show a happy face when you're under the limit and an angry face when you're over. It's hard to resist the temptation to go a little over to make it frown.
      - closewith 4y ago
        In Ireland, they used to show the actual value in flashing red when speeding, but getting the "highest score" became a goal amongst the youth, so now they just say "TOO FAST" when more than 10km/h over the limit.
        DonHopkins 4y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20734665 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20734665 When I was at TomTom, they ran a contest for employees to come up with fun ways to gamify their internet-connected GPS Personal Navigation Devices. Some wise guy came up with the brilliant idea of maintaining a real-time "Top 10 Speeders" leaderboard for every single road on the entire map. Kinda like Foursquare for speeding on local roads. No matter where you were driving in the world, you could instantly see the top ten speeds of other TomTom users who drove down that same stretch of road, and put the pedal to the metal to claim or defend your own spot on the leaderboard! That one went over like a lead balloon with the legal department. The only thing worse would be a chat app for texting while driving above the speed limit with other Leaderboard members along the same stretch of road. They also didn't appreciate my proposal for TomTomagotchi: a simulated personality on your PND that relentlessly begs you to drive it all around town to various interesting places it wants to visit, to improve its mood and satisfy its cravings. (Kind of like having virtual kids!) I'm sure there's a revenue model having drive through Burger Kings and car washes pay for placements.
- yowzadave 4y ago
  What's the problem with traffic cameras? They seem fairer and more effective than discretionary police enforcement.
  - junofan 4y ago
    The goal is safety, not effective enforcement. Cameras have increased accidents in many areas.
    - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
      That seems an exceptional claim. Where I live folks obeyed the speed limit scrupulously where traffic cameras were in use. That has to reduce accidents, as expected?
      - version_five 4y ago
        Hes probably talking about cities shortening yellow lights after they install red light cameras to make more people into "offenders" and cause accidents as a side effect https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/ https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-sho... https://www.salon.com/2017/04/05/this-may-have-happened-to-you-revenue-hungry-cities-mess-with-traffic-lights-to-write-more-tickets_partner/ https://www.salon.com/2017/04/05/this-may-have-happened-to-y...
        JoeAltmaier 4y ago
        Ah. We only have speed cameras.
      - SoftTalker 4y ago
        Any road has a "natural" speed that ~80% of drivers will drive at if not otherwise restricted. If you limit the speed below that, you have a lot of annoyed, frustrated drivers and that is a recipe for more road rage and accidents.
TheRealPomax 4y ago
It'd be even cooler with several microphones and a parabolic speaker so that it can actually shush only the offenders, with most of the rest of the audience left blissfully unshushed.
- gumby 4y ago
  I wonder if the public shaming of one person by the machine will encourage the others to be more reserved. And I wonder if that would be a good or bad thing.
  - TheRealPomax 4y ago
    nice thing about a parabolic speaker: just put it on a gimbal and yell at everyone who needs it. People who don't talk during a conference talk don't need discouraging.
standardUser 4y ago
It always seems the people with strange noises in the background, or audible phone alerts, or making comments to their pets, or chiming in when someone else is talking, are usually a boss.
Buttons840 4y ago
I've had a related idea. I'd like it if political debates allowed the candidates to talk to each other directly more, and I want a timer above each candidate that shows how long they have been talking and an interruption counter. This way, if one politician frequently interrupts or talks more than their fair share it will become obvious to both them and the viewers. Of course, this will probably never happen for several reasons. And political debates don't often change people's minds, but they are good theater -- actually, something like this would add the the theatrical nature, so maybe there's some slim chance it could happen.
- amadeuspagel 4y ago
  I think it would be fun to have a debate using a chess clock. Last time I researched this there was some podcast were two people did this, but of course if two people already know and like each other the chess clock isn't necessary.
nealabq 4y ago
In conference/zoom calls I'd like a slider to express my boredom-to-fascination level. And I'd like the average value prominently displayed, to discourage droning -- the scourge of meetings. I'm talking about status/discussion/brainstorm meetings. Not presentations, altho maybe they could also use some kind of feedback mechanism.
- fellowniusmonk 4y ago
  It would be great if once a certain threshold of people were interested vs bored it would automatically kick out all the bored people into a different room. In highschool I moved to a place where if you weren't talking about people magazine gossip or football no one was interested, I'd like to know who those people are in my remote org/club, etc.
silentdissenter 4y ago
Sort of like these: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/rac674/traffic_lights_used_for_noise_control_in_school/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/rac674/traffic_l...

39 points by gumby 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

krisoft 4y ago

But wouldn't that also shush the presenter?

gumby 4y ago
Wouldn’t that be good? Sometimes I talk too much in my own meetings.
- krisoft 4y ago
  > Sometimes I talk too much in my own meetings. That is a problem indeed, but this doesn't solve that. You can talk as much as you want as long as the volume is low enough.

astockwell 4y ago

My years on this blue ball have repeatedly taught me that technical solutions meant to "correct" human interpersonal problems don't usually work out how they're intended. They initially _work_, but humans rebel against them and the problem ends up compounded. Reminds me of traffic cameras.

halfnormalform 4y ago
On the Log Ride at Knott's Berry Farm they have infrared light beams above the log flume that trigger a loud pre-recorded "Sit down!" message if you raise your hands up too high. It was so much fun in Jr High to try and set them all off.
- frebord 4y ago
  Makes me think of the digital speed limit signs that start to flash red and blue when you hit 10 mph over the limit. Like of course every 16 year old kid ever is trying to make them flash red and blue and also me at 32.
  - Veen 4y ago
    In the UK, we have signs that show a happy face when you're under the limit and an angry face when you're over. It's hard to resist the temptation to go a little over to make it frown.
    - closewith 4y ago
      In Ireland, they used to show the actual value in flashing red when speeding, but getting the "highest score" became a goal amongst the youth, so now they just say "TOO FAST" when more than 10km/h over the limit.
      - DonHopkins 4y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20734665 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20734665 When I was at TomTom, they ran a contest for employees to come up with fun ways to gamify their internet-connected GPS Personal Navigation Devices. Some wise guy came up with the brilliant idea of maintaining a real-time "Top 10 Speeders" leaderboard for every single road on the entire map. Kinda like Foursquare for speeding on local roads. No matter where you were driving in the world, you could instantly see the top ten speeds of other TomTom users who drove down that same stretch of road, and put the pedal to the metal to claim or defend your own spot on the leaderboard! That one went over like a lead balloon with the legal department. The only thing worse would be a chat app for texting while driving above the speed limit with other Leaderboard members along the same stretch of road. They also didn't appreciate my proposal for TomTomagotchi: a simulated personality on your PND that relentlessly begs you to drive it all around town to various interesting places it wants to visit, to improve its mood and satisfy its cravings. (Kind of like having virtual kids!) I'm sure there's a revenue model having drive through Burger Kings and car washes pay for placements.
yowzadave 4y ago
What's the problem with traffic cameras? They seem fairer and more effective than discretionary police enforcement.
- junofan 4y ago
  The goal is safety, not effective enforcement. Cameras have increased accidents in many areas.
  - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
    That seems an exceptional claim. Where I live folks obeyed the speed limit scrupulously where traffic cameras were in use. That has to reduce accidents, as expected?
    - version_five 4y ago
      Hes probably talking about cities shortening yellow lights after they install red light cameras to make more people into "offenders" and cause accidents as a side effect https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/ https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-sho... https://www.salon.com/2017/04/05/this-may-have-happened-to-you-revenue-hungry-cities-mess-with-traffic-lights-to-write-more-tickets_partner/ https://www.salon.com/2017/04/05/this-may-have-happened-to-y...
      - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
        Ah. We only have speed cameras.
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      Any road has a "natural" speed that ~80% of drivers will drive at if not otherwise restricted. If you limit the speed below that, you have a lot of annoyed, frustrated drivers and that is a recipe for more road rage and accidents.

TheRealPomax 4y ago

It'd be even cooler with several microphones and a parabolic speaker so that it can actually shush only the offenders, with most of the rest of the audience left blissfully unshushed.

gumby 4y ago
I wonder if the public shaming of one person by the machine will encourage the others to be more reserved. And I wonder if that would be a good or bad thing.
- TheRealPomax 4y ago
  nice thing about a parabolic speaker: just put it on a gimbal and yell at everyone who needs it. People who don't talk during a conference talk don't need discouraging.

standardUser 4y ago

It always seems the people with strange noises in the background, or audible phone alerts, or making comments to their pets, or chiming in when someone else is talking, are usually a boss.

Buttons840 4y ago

I've had a related idea. I'd like it if political debates allowed the candidates to talk to each other directly more, and I want a timer above each candidate that shows how long they have been talking and an interruption counter. This way, if one politician frequently interrupts or talks more than their fair share it will become obvious to both them and the viewers. Of course, this will probably never happen for several reasons. And political debates don't often change people's minds, but they are good theater -- actually, something like this would add the the theatrical nature, so maybe there's some slim chance it could happen.

amadeuspagel 4y ago
I think it would be fun to have a debate using a chess clock. Last time I researched this there was some podcast were two people did this, but of course if two people already know and like each other the chess clock isn't necessary.

nealabq 4y ago

In conference/zoom calls I'd like a slider to express my boredom-to-fascination level. And I'd like the average value prominently displayed, to discourage droning -- the scourge of meetings. I'm talking about status/discussion/brainstorm meetings. Not presentations, altho maybe they could also use some kind of feedback mechanism.

fellowniusmonk 4y ago
It would be great if once a certain threshold of people were interested vs bored it would automatically kick out all the bored people into a different room. In highschool I moved to a place where if you weren't talking about people magazine gossip or football no one was interested, I'd like to know who those people are in my remote org/club, etc.

silentdissenter 4y ago

Sort of like these: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/rac674/traffic_lights_used_for_noise_control_in_school/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/rac674/traffic_l...