I have heard that the use of feedback with delay - an echo - is very effective in disrupting movements like racist chants in say a sports crowd. It is very confusing to hear yourself with a delay of about one second, as anyone who has tried skyping without headphones has probably experienced first hand.

My idea is to try and use this phenomenon on babies. Enter Echocry, a device which detects when a baby is crying, and produces the exact sound captured with a one-second delay. It wouldn't stop a baby from "legitimately" crying, but it might confuse it for some of the fake, attention-seeking cries.

As a plus, if it learns to cope with the confusion, your baby will later in life be able to make skype calls without headphones: unquestionably a strong asset.
-- placid_turmoil, Feb 18 2009

Not bad. But I think a baby should be allowed some fake and attention seeking crying.

So I suggest only to use this for crybabies, babies that cry all the time. Test it and see what happens.
-- zeno, Feb 18 2009


The crybaby will quickly figure out that it's a lot more interesting to make sub-1s shrieks and overdub itself, and grow up to become a famous hip-hop artist.
There's a serious dubbing/looping toy niche for the 1-3 year market, I think.
(+) Thanks for making me laugh.
-- jutta, Feb 18 2009



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