Description
The Hushme is like the Baby Muzzle for adults! Of course, they spin it that the (Bane-approved!) voice mask and muffler serves wearers and their privacy while taking phone calls in public, not that it protects all the people who don’t know them from listening to loud-ass strangers have conversations with their mamas and friends Cornelius at the bus stop. At the coffee shop. At the leg press machine you’ve been waiting to use. At the table next to you at the steak house you’ve been saving for a month to take your wife to for her birthday.
Nah, Hushme’s for the user. All the cats out there who don’t want Nosy Nosersons listening in on their business deals, medical discussions, baby talk with their wives, and phone sex with their mistresses. The muffler, which has been making the tech trade show rounds in prototype form, looks loosely like a pair of headphones that snap together at center over your kisser. There you’ll find Hushme’s microphone for talking and “advanced insulation materials” for acoustic suppression outside the device. A pair of in-ear headphones extends from either side of the set for complete hands-free communication.
In addition to suppressing your voice, the Hushme pairs with a smartphone app to provide a library of sounds that will mask it too. Since the system also has built-in speakers, I’m pretty sure this means you’ll be able to project sounds like falling rain and blowing wind to further enhance your privacy while taking phone calls. Which is kind of a giant crock of BS because why should everyone else have to suffer through 15 minutes of monkey screeches or heavy Darth Vader breathing just because some F’ing dude has decided to take a private call in public? I’m not even joking about the monkey and Vader. Those are 2 of the options in the Hushme voice masking library. Plus you can upload custom sounds, so I can only imagine what kinds of cacophonies we’d experience sitting in a room full of Hushme users.
Admittedly, the Hushme is probably intended more for office than social spaces, and I do see how companies with open floor plans and customer service centers could benefit from them. If you’re interested in learning more, or being that guywho’s masked up and voice-masked-out at brunch, check out the Hushme website, and look for the mobile phone companion in the crowdfunding sphere sometime in 2017.
May 2017 Update: Hushme has hit Kickstarter. Click here to pledge for one through June 9, 2017.
