Get Smart's Cone of Silence now a reality?

Shaun Saunders points out an article in NewScientist. Do you remember Get Smart? Well recall that big plastic dome that came down whenever Max wanted to confide in the chief. What made it comical is that it never seemed to work.

Well that is a thing of the past it would seem. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are being patented!

From the article:

• Instead of plastic domes, they use a sensor network to work out where potential eavesdroppers are, and speakers to generate a subtle masking sound at just the right level.

To make the system work:

• The walls of the room must be peppered with light-switch-sized units that include a microphone, a speaker, an infrared location sensor and networking circuitry connected to a server.

The idea is to have the system beam white noise and randomized office noise at the potential eavesdropper.

Honest! Read more here