App designed to keep motormouths in check

Giving softly-spoken consumers everywhere a better chance of getting themselves heard, the Talk-o-Meter is a chat-monitoring iPhone app designed to show conversation dominators the error of their overbearing ways. After a brief calibration period to identify the voices in a dialogue, the app recognises who is speaking and keeps track of each person’s talk time. The results are displayed as red and blue bars indicating the balance. Speakers can then glance at the Talk-o-Meter as they converse, and—the designer hopes—make adjustments if they are monopolising the discussion. Talk-o-Meter is priced at EUR 3.99 on the Apple iTunes Store. Its creator, Unperfekthaus, is working on a new version of the app that can be used by more than two people, to identify those who dominate group discussions. One to try out or get involved in? Spotted by: Reinhard Wiesemann