Live in fear of being recorded? Spycatcher's Tape Recorder Blocker exploits a fundamental flaw shared by audio recording devices. While humans can hear only within a certain range of frequencies, microphones respond to any vibration going. All one has to do is play a loud note beneath the human range, and it will drown out what's being sampled in the "normal" range, and voila: one ruined recording.
The sales pitch implies, but does not claim, that it works over the phone. Effective range is 0.5m with digital recorders, and 3m with tape recorders. I would expect that recorders designed to pick up only human voices might be clever enough to ignore the low-frequency input.
However, this thing is an outrageous rip-off, costing $4,500. Is there any reason why something similar could not be made for less than $100? Assuming, of course, that "generating a sub-audible tone" is all it really does.
Tape Recorder Blocker [Spycatcher via Oh Gizmo!]
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