Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Talk ... Without Speaking

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that's-absolutely-brilliant dept.

mjm7 writes "Finally, we might be able to get rid of all those annoying people yelling over the static on their cell phones! CNN has an article about a new technology that senses muscle movements in your face and then translates them into sound. This way all you have to do is mouth words into the phone...not actually speak!" Somehow I suspect that we'd lose a lot of the subtleties of communication, but it sure would be nice every time hemos calls me from the discotheque.

6 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Orson Scott Card by Cirrius · · Score: 2, Informative

    Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, had Ender and later Miro subvocalizing to Jane, the sentient entity that "lived" in the network of ansibles. It might continue past that, I have only read up to Xenocide.

  2. Re:William Gibson? by prator · · Score: 3, Informative

    Was that in "The Diamond Age"? I can't remember.

    This was in the Ender's Game series. This is how Ender communicated with Jane.

    -prator

  3. Re:William Gibson? by weakethics · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is a Gibson story, co-written, I think with John Shirley where astronauts have surgically implanted "bone phones" that picks up their speech.
    I believe it is Mona Lisa Overdrive in which the Japanese girl has the virtual assistant that she communicates with subvocally.

    --
    "I like to play with things a while... before annihilation!" Ming the Merciless
  4. Not new by doublem · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not new, old technology. They even have a guy who uses a handheld one on South Park!

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  5. Re:This is bad news because... by Carp+Flounderson · · Score: 2, Informative

    And X-Ray machines are just big unmodulated radio stations broadcasting at higher frequencies, we should put those in every room of our homes too.

    --

    Color flashing, thunder crashing, dynamite machines.

  6. Not a big problem... by wirefarm · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...since the research is being done in Japan.
    Japanese has very few dipthongs.
    A word that might be spelled 'Ao' using latin characters,(Â), would be pronounced as 'Ah-ow' (sort of).
    Some words do change the vowels, but usually just by extending it. The word Tokyo isn't pronounced 'toe-key-o' as much as it is 'to-u-key-o-u'. The audible differences can be very slight, though. Possibly by sensing the muscle movements, it would be easier to discern the differences.
    Another interesting capability would be the ability to discern mood. Consider the following:
    'Yes dear, I'd <rolls_eyes>love</rolls_eyes>to have your mother visit this weekend...'

    I'm not sure that I'd want my phone telling my girlfriend when I'm being sarcastic. You could have a new groupof 'tags' kind of like those you see on IRC:
    roll_eyes
    clench_jaw
    check_watch
    sneer
    cringe
    shake_head_in_disbelief_at_the_studidity_of_what_i s_being_said

    You get the idea...
    Cheers,
    Jim in Tokyo

    --
    -- My Weblog.