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Speaking Without Saying a Word Thursday, October 12, 2006 - Iddo Genuth Home >> Articles >> General Technology   
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In two years time a technology that will enable users to speak without uttering a sound might become commercially available. The ability to communicate silently could assist us in every day situations such as a phone conversation on a crowded subway or simply anytime we'd prefer that others wouldn't hear us. It could aid security and special operations forces, people with vocal cord problems, and might even find a place in gaming.
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To learn more about subvocal speech technology, its current state and future potential, TFOT interviewed Dr. Chuck Jorgensen, Chief Scientist for Neuroengineering at NASA Ames Research Center.
Q: When did the subvocal speech project begin and what was the initial motivation for it? A: The Subvocal program at NASA started in 1999. It was part of a larger program called the Extension of the Human Senses. It was motivated by communication problems under pressurized breathing equipment and alternate gas mixtures occurring in space operations and high noise environments such as extra-vehicular missions and space station operations. Q: What is subvocal speech and how did you detect and translate it into normal speech? A: Subvocal speech is the direct non-auditory interpretation of the nervous system signals sent to muscles of the vocal tract (e.g., electromyographic or EMG signals). It is measured by surface contact sensors and the electrical signals are transformed into patterns recognized by classifiers as word or word components. Q: Is there a difference between "thinking in words" and subvocal speech? In other words, would you describe your device as a mind reading machine (even if a crude one at that)? Q: In 2004 your device was only able to recognize about ten or so words. What advancements have you made since then? A: We are up to about 25 words and 38 vowels and consonants. We are communicating in real time in pressurized suits to live cell phones. Q: What do you think could be the main application of such technology and how much computing power will be necessary to make it work effectively? Q: How many sensors do you currently use in your test and how do you predict commercial applications of the technology implement the sensors? A: We currently use two sensors although, if needed, that number can easily be increased to detect specific speech articulator movements. It is just a cost question. We are also in late stage development of a non-contact capacitive sensor that would not require wires or the messy medical style Ag/AgCl sensors used in the lab. Q: Does the software you developed need to learn the EMG signals of every user (like voice recognition software), and how long does it take to teach the software each word? Q: Are you working on composition of full sentences, and what are the current obstacles in your way of achieving this goal? A: At this stage, only simple two or three word phrases. Our effort is small and resource-constrained more than technically constrained. If we recognize more vowels and consonants and be able to connect to existing speech recognition systems quickly, making the full sentence issue a largely solved problem. Q: Have DARPA and the U.S. military been actively interested in the technology? A: Yes, DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has begun a recent program using the technology after consulting with us. We are working on a couple of other military applications of interest to us through small company subcontracts, but NASA is a civilian agency and that is not our main focus. Q: Could you give some sort of time estimate for a commercial application of the technology?
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well, a project like that is fantastic. what about now? already 3 years past lol I would rather go to http://www.lucky-eyewear.com/ for a reading glass if i am near-sighted. That is more efficient. the same if i can't say or hear any words, i have many other alternations, like body language, writing,...that will be more direct and money saving lol |
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Things like this are exactly the kind of things that the movement for indefinite life extension is working to create indefinite healthy life extension for. The future is going to be amazing, and to be dead while its going on would suck. This reminds me of another thing Ive seen lately, where you were a helmet that picks up brainwaves that allow you to do simple things, not speak yet, but it can get there in time. |
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This appears to be one more way to communicate with computers, silent or not, the signals can be fed to the chips in computers as intelligence! Typing, and voice devices are limiting factors for computing, imagine dictating letters, instructions, messages without making a sound! The future is here.better than am electrical connection to the brain itself. |
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I have used your technological application of sub vocal speech to show my clients who stutter how speech is developed. Most people who stutter try to get words out. I refer them to your research to show them that it is enough to talk in their head. The signal for executing the speech will happen without thought or effort. Actually having such a device would be a great therapy tool The person could actually experience how this happens. |
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Iv recently figured out how to do this exact thing 4 days ago. My roommates have been thinking that they have been going insane. |
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| oh wait you ment with a machine | |||
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Another application for this is for hearing and hearing impaired to communicate, maybe through bluetooth link to a pda or smartphone, maybe even some kind of digital visor that holographs the words |
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I've searched the internet on information about implants. The first brain implant is said to have been in ohio in 1974 but there is nothing about who or how many or what happened to them. I've also seen where electrodes were being implanted in babies heads as early as 1946 without parental consent/knowledge. Also there was an implant called the "rambo chip" used on soldiers during the vietnam war. That was before 1975. So how does Ohio fit in? Did it ever really stop after 1946? Or after Vietnam? The NSA has poison kits to run pharmapsychology drugs into homes. Drugs used to aid in mind control. I've found powder in my ears in several places in ohio. I've also been harassed by police in indiana and ohio. I was born in 1976. This is 2011. How far has it come without anyone knowing? Why doesn't anyone believe the technology is there except the people that are harassed and the people who design and use it? Is it possible that most people have implants from birth or the unlucky visit to a doctor who sold out? Implants can control all of your brain functions and can induce and control dreams. Is that how some people who are born deaf dream in spoken english? A survey in Great Britain showed that 7-10 percent of the people hear voices. A psychiatrist suggested to one woman she should talk to the voices. He said they were all part of her subconscious. I believe we all have an inner voice but don't think we talk to it. I don't think she's crazy. I think she has an implant. How many people in this country have an actual "inner voice"? Maybe you have an implant. And if you don't hear voices or an inner voice that doesn't mean they're not watching you. |
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bose on ear headphones |
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| cool dat jullie dreuzels gedachten kunnen lezen zonder te toveren. | |||
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| I relaly couldn't ask for more from this article. | |||
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