Herman Miller and their consulting partners Applied Minds and Insight Product Development hope to solve that problem with a new device called Babble. Sort of like a stomp pedal for your phone, Babble takes your spoken words, and synthesizes a "conversation" of babbling voices around you. The effect for you, is a mildly distracting burble. But for a co-worker who can't hear the other side of the conversation, keeping track of any information on a casual basis becomes almost impossible. Babble works, because it understands the social context of its function.
[Via IDFuel.com]
