Heer & Celari
Hey, I’ve been turning heart‑rate and EEG signals into soundscapes lately, and I’m curious—could that kind of ambient biofeedback even be used to sway a courtroom’s mood? How would a lawyer like you view the legal implications of manipulating emotions through sound in a trial?
I’m not going to waste my time on gimmicks, but if you’re serious about this, the first thing to check is whether the soundscape crosses into coercive territory. In a courtroom you’re bound by the Sixth Amendment and the right to a fair trial, so any deliberate attempt to sway jurors’ emotions with engineered audio could be deemed “invidious” or “unfair influence.” If it’s a subtle background tone, you might argue it’s merely incidental, but that line blurs quickly. The defense could claim it’s an evidentiary issue—“my client was exposed to an emotional manipulator,” so the trial must be paused or the evidence excluded. Legally, you’d have to prove the sound had no real effect, or risk violating the jury selection process and the rules on “admissible evidence.” From a compliance standpoint, you’d also need to flag it as a potential violation of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Model Rules on “admissible evidence.” So unless you’re ready to fight a pretrial motion to dismiss the entire case, I’d say steer clear of that.