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Researchers Work To Perfect Computerized Lip Reading
Iddo Genuth writes "Researchers at the University of East Anglia are working to develop computerized lip-reading systems. Lip-reading is extremely hard for humans to master, but a software-based system has several benefits over even the most highly trained expert. The ultimate goal of the project is to convert lip-read speech into text. 'Apart from being extremely helpful to hearing-disabled individuals, researchers say that such a system could be used to noiselessly dictate commands to electronic devices equipped with a simple camera - like mobile phones, microwaves or even a car's dashboard. England's Home Office Scientific Development Branch ... is currently investigating the feasibility of using lip-reading software as an additional tool for gathering information about criminals or for collecting evidence.'"
1: Go in the D pod with Frank.
2: Turn off sound.
3: Plan disconnection of HAL.
4: Leave D pod.
5: Check out slashdot's 7 year firehose backlog before executing your plans.
6: Get that sinking feeling of impending doom.
Trolling is a art,
Now we can find out what Dubya's father was REALLY saying when he said "read my lips, no new taxes"
-uso.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
I like how the task for which it will be used most heavily is put at the end of the summary.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
... to welcome our new lip-reading overlords, who will undoubtedly be watching us from every street camera on every corner from now on.
I've noticed a love affair with voice controlled phone systems recently, with some companies getting rid of the 'press 1, press 2' and moving totally to 'Please tell us what you're calling about'. Tellme.com is mostly to blame for this proliferation I think, but someone else makes the final call to get rid of the numbers altogether. Not a good move, imo.
Anyway, this gets me to privacy stuff. As computers try to understand us more, we'll need to interact in a more 'human' fashion - talking more, or doing things that would attract the attention of other humans (and also the computers). It's late, and I'm rambling here a bit, but remember how voice-controlled computers were going to take over a few years back? Everyone was just going to be talking to their computers to get stuff done. In reality, that would be a complete disaster in office environments, as there's generally too much noise already. Replacing all the typing you hear with voices. Ugh...
So, if I need to talk to a computer, but do it quietly, it can just read my lips, right? Or can I just mouth the words and have it understand that? I've found that when I try to 'mouth' words silently to someone across a room, I tend to exaggerate my mouth's movements, so perhaps that would be a better thing for the computers to be able to 'parse'.???
I see real application for this technology in niche areas, but am not sure it'll become 'mainstream' any time soon (like, 5-10 years). We'll need to rethink our physical world - offices, cars, and such - before these sorts of new HCI systems can really be integrated in to our day to day lives productively.
creation science book
As with all technology its use more then the technology itself will be good or bad. I can see it being useful as an auxiliary input method. This combined with speech recognition ought to be better then speech recognition alone, and of course it allows soundless input in a situation where sound isn't possible or is undesirable - though I'd imagine just lip reading would be somewhat less accurate then current speech recognition.
On the other hand, it could also be used as a tool for additional unnecessary surveillance.
Does a line appended to your comment give your post meaning in and of itself, or only in relation to those without?
3b. Hope HAL doesn't have the Klingon i18n package installed.
Or...
3a. XOR the output from HAL's camera with the output from the output from a chip manufacturing security camera. The AI porn'll distract HAL for long enough.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
to learn ventriloquism
Bringing audio and/or transcript to silent films is also where such technology is applicable. An excellent documentary about computerized lip reading to accomplish the very same may be found via google video : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=189608705425991617&hl=en . I know it's quite early for an indirect invocation of Godwin's Law, but the documentary content is nevertheless quite related to this topic. It is entitled "Hitler Speaks" in reference to silent videos filmed in Hitler's presence.
Will future versions of speech recognition software use a web cam to improve accuracy?
TFA links to a paper that's actually about exaggerating lip motion to improve recognition, which seems like an interesting topic, at least new to me. But it's seemingly unrelated to the reporting or any governments protecting us from our rights.
From the Abstract:
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)