New device to read lip movements

2010-03-04
Newsfeed

Scientists at the CeBIT fair have demonstrated a device that can convert silent lip movements into a computer-generated speech.

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Scientists at the CeBIT fair have demonstrated a device that can convert silent lip movements into a computer-generated speech.

Using electromyography, scientists managed to capture and record the tiny muscular movements that lips make, later changing them into electrical pulses that can be converted into speech.

Michael Wand, from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), said: "We currently use electrodes which are glued to the skin. In the future, such electrodes might for example be incorporated into cellphones."

The device developed at KIT would help people who have lost their voice due to illness or accident, as well as enable people to reveal confidential information such as PIN number over a mobile device.

According to Mr Wand, it is possible for a person to speak different languages using the technology - as electrical pulses are universal.

Mr Wand continued: "Native speakers can silently utter a sentence in their language, and the receivers hear the translated sentence in their language. It appears as if the native speaker produced speech in a foreign language."

He added the translation technology works for languages like English, French and German, adding translation to Chinese would be more difficult.

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