Wall, Ceiling Tiles Can Be âScannedâ To Hear Past Conversations
Thanks to revolutionary 4D technology developed by Prof. Marlene Cavanaugh at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there are no longer any secrets.Cavanaugh, Professor of Optical Sciences at MIT, uses a combination of electron microscopes and good old-fashioned catalog research to examine infinitesimal changes in fiber patterns within acoustic wall and ceiling tiles. Â Her teams microscopically examine and compare new tiles against used tiles.Â  Depending upon the age, the depth of information revealed can reach back years, and in some cases, decades.ââEnergy cannot beÂ created orÂ destroyed, it canÂ onlyÂ be changed from one form to another,ââ said Cavanaugh, quoting Albert Einstein. Â âThatâs where we started.Â  I got the idea when my lab was being remodeled.Â  There was a period of time when the tiles were being replaced, and when the old ones were taken out, I could of course hear conversations that were taking place in the next lab before the new ones were put in.Â  I wondered if the tiles could have absorbed some sort of energy, and if that energy could be tracked.âCavanaugh selected a team of students to research building records to find the lot numbers and factories that produced the buildingâs acoustic tiles.Â  When a match was found, unused tiles were shipped to her lab at MIT and electronically scanned.Â  Used tiles were also scanned and microscopic differences were revealed and converted into sound wave patters developed at one of MITâs audio labs.âThe process is crude at this point, but weâre making progress,â she said. Â âRight now we have snippets of conversations, but itâs difficult to preserve the actual physical tiles once theyâve been scanned.âWere there any secrets revealedÂ by Prof. Cavanaugh andÂ her team of audio-visual experts?Â  Sheâs not telling.Â  âWhat I will say is this,â said the Professor. âIn this day and age where weâre all mindful of electronic footprints we leave behind, donât forget that speech was the first advanced form of human communication.Â  What hasnât changed is that itâs important to remain aware of everything we say.Â  Unless you see your neighbor buying an electron microscope and removing tiles fromÂ your walls or ceiling, you really donât have much to worry about.â