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Nerve-tapping Neckband Allows 'Telepathic' Chat

ZonkerWilliam writes "Newscientist has an interesting article on tapping the nerve impulses going from the brain to the vocal chords, allowing for 'Voiceless' phone calls. "With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerized voice." It's not quite telepathy, but it's pretty close."

3 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. GitS:SAC anyone? by l0cust · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I remember one episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex where there was some trouble with a bunch of geisha robots and that bald leader guy Aramaki was trying to convince a military guy to not to raid the place or something. At one point they leave the meeting room to talk in private, Aramaki stretches out a wire from some electronic collar he is wearing and the other guy attaches that to a similar one around his neck, and both of them start communicating without speaking a single word. Seems like the exact sort of thing TFA is talking about.

    PS: Yeah anime ruined my life too (and Kusanagi is hawt!)

    --
    Politicians and Pedophiles: Two groups of exploitive bastards who are most dangerous when they're thinking of children.
  2. Re:Not even close by EdIII · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It's funny that my posts are being modded offtopic, flamebaits, etc. while your post that asks me to put down the weed, a dictionary, and novels by specific authors gets modded up. Oh well, the meta moderators will work that out :)

    In any case, my usage of dictionary is fitting. There is no emotion in this, just a rational use of a supplied definition from an online dictionary.

    I am not taking away from anyone's work, but this hardly qualifies as telepathy. You do point it out right in your post. Telepathy IS communicating with your mind alone. I'm sorry, but this would like saying that FedEX overnight is like teleportation.

    FTA, it states quite clearly that they are tapping into signals being sent to the vocal chords in the sender, and then translating them into speech with technology. If you view telepathy as two sides of a communication transaction, they are only manipulating one side of it anyways, while leaving the other side using their normal everyday abilities to listen to sound in the environment.

    So it will have a great impact for those that are disabled, and I can see why some people would get emotional over that. It is wonderful and moving. Nonetheless, it is not telepathy.

    P.S - Whoever is having fun modding me down for simply taking a rational position, have fun doing that :) It clearly makes you right :)

  3. Re:Not even close by EdIII · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Careful buddy.

    They all came out of the dark corners and modded my +5 insightful down to off topic, flame bait, etc. just for pointing out that a dictionary's definition rules out the device as telepathy.

    Oh wait, I guess this might be considered flame bait too :)

    In any case you are right, and thank you. The definition is quite clear on what we consider telepathy to be, and if that device is telepathy then FedEX Overnight is teleportation.