Hanover: It has happened to almost everyone.
You are sitting on a train or a bus and someone right next to
you is annoyingly shouting into his or her mobile phone.
But those days could soon be past with "silent sounds", a
new technology unveiled at the CeBIT fair on Tuesday that
transforms lip movements into a computer-generated voice for
the listener at the other end of the phone.
The device, developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (KIT), uses electromyography, monitoring tiny
muscular movements that occur when we speak and converting
them into electrical pulses that can then be turned into
speech, without a sound uttered.
"We currently use electrodes which are glued to the skin.
In the future, such electrodes might for example by
incorporated into cell phones," said Michael Wand, from the
KIT.
The technology opens up a host of applications, from
helping people who have lost their voice due to illness or
accident to telling a trusted friend your PIN number over the
phone without anyone eavesdropping -- assuming no lip-readers
are around.
The technology can also turn you into an instant
polyglot. Because the electrical pulses are universal, they
can be immediately transformed into the language of the user's
choice.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, March 02, 2010, 18:38