German researchers are working on mobile phone technology that would convert silent mouth movements into speech. It’s an ingenious way to have a noiseless conversation.
The technology developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), involved electromyography, and measures the electrical potentials generated by muscle activity in the face to translate mouth movements into speech. You’d be able to speak silently, but the person on the other end of the line would hear what you were saying loud and clear. The technology measures the tiny electrical signals produced by muscles used when someone speaks. The device can record these pulses even when a person does not audibly utter any words and use them to generate synthesized speech in another handset. Software translates the signals into text, which can then be spoken by a synthesizer.
If this technology is successful enough, which is hoped that it would be, then people would be able to share PIN numbers, passwords, and other confidential information without sharing it with the whole room. Silent communication implies increased privacy and security since information can be transferred noiselessly in a crowded environment, or in circumstances which require for one reason or another cautiousness and increased vigilance.
Other possibilities include communication in situations where a loud conversation can be disturbing. The technology also supports multilingual communication since electrical pulses can be converted to any language. So in a multicultural three party call for example, the caller can lip talk in English and the receivers (e.g. French or German) can receive the conversation in their own language.
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