Slashdot Mirror
Silent Ear and Tongue-Tracking Tech Can Control Wearables (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists at Georgia Tech are developing silent speech systems that can enable fast and hands-free communication with wearable devices, controlled by the user's tongue and ears. As seen with open source project Eyedrivomatic, the researchers want to apply the technology to provide a device control solution for people who are disabled. They suggest it could also be used by those working in a loud environment in need of a quiet way to communicate with their wearable devices. The prototype involves a combination of tongue control with earphone-like pieces each installed with proximity sensors to map the changing shape of the ear canal. Every word manipulates the canal in a different way, allowing for accurate recognition.
Oh, I can't wait until people are controlling their phones with their tongues and ears. Can not wait.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Are you having a stroke? No I'm writing an email.
I had the same idea a while back, but instead the idea was to use a pair of glasses with arms that were antennas - the position of the tongue in the mouth was sensed in the space based on how it affected an HF field between the parallell wires, kinda like a head-theremin. There were a lot of potential issues with interference and the processing to work it out was not going to be trivial - but the idea seemed sound and would have let you use the tongue/teeth and roof of mouth as a kind of mouse pointer and keyboard.
Sounds like the communications detailed in Enders Game , when Ender is communicating with his earpiece AI 'Jane'.
Hopefully, it such control wouldn't be confused by speakers of click languages such as Khoekhoe, Sandawe !Kung.