La shiftall, a subsidiary of Panasonic, has created a new microphone that attaches to your mouth, perfect for shouting while gaming online without waking everyone around you. It's called Mutalk, and as an advertiser I don't find it to be a great name, because regardless of the usefulness of the gadget, this kind of bitch seems like a dystopian nightmare.
Mutalk: would you like to talk about it?
Let's try to be rational. Mutalk is proposed as a gaming accessory ready for use with VR and the metaverse: once we are around with our headsets, talking to other people online can create problems for those in the flesh who are close to us. In theory it works.
In practice, I am not ready to wear it. It also has something of BDSM that doesn't particularly appeal to me. The chassis attaches to the face via straps (I'm serious) that don't seem to interfere with headphones or headsets.
What's inside this stuff? Clearly a microphone, which picks up and transmits the voice in an extremely natural way, and detects when it is worn, activating instantly.
And MUTI users
Shiftall says Mutalk can lower the volume of speech in a room by about 30 decibels, making it unhearable, or at least not annoying. He also hypothesizes an application for work conversations in an office with other colleagues.
I, excuse me, I can only see a disturbing contraption. Disturbing, I repeat myself. Combined with a VR viewer it even causes me claustrophobia: I wonder how you can breathe while wearing both devices.
However, Shiftall first teased this product at CES in early 2022, and shop online of the company's Japanese site is only now accepting reservations for purchase. Furthermore, there is no news in other countries other than Japan of a possible launch on the market.
If it gives me so much, sooner or later we will see "soundproofers" for virtual reality. They will help make the metaverse more immersive, but I hope they aren't in this form.
