Tuesday, January 10, 2023

"Well, shut my mouth!"

In the name of protecting your conversations...

Shiftall's Mutalk believes it can help.

The device looks like an eerie tech version of a mouth gag, but it's actually meant to help you talk more easily in the virtual and work worlds you may be interacting with. It calls itself a "soundproof Bluetooth microphone that makes it difficult for others to hear your voice and at the same time, makes it difficult for ambient noise to enter the microphone."

French startup Skyted created a similarly sound-absorbing mask to ensure privacy on calls while in crowded and noisy places. It looks more like a bulky version of the reusable masks we've all grown accustomed to during the pandemic, but Skyted says it absorbs 80% of voice vibration and directs it instead through a wireless Bluetooth connection to our phones or computers.

"My original concept was from a transportation perspective, as I focused on how we could keep the human voice from traveling to keep calls private, silent and confidential," Skyted CEO Stéphane Hersen said in a statement when announcing his device. more