Mobile Phones Convert Silent Mouth Movements into Speech

From the 2nd article: "The Institute is presenting its research at this year's CeBIT show in Hanover, so don't expect to see this technology in a handset any time soon. But that just gives you plenty of time to come up with even more inventive uses for soundless calling, should it ever hit the mainstream."


http://www.cellular-news.com/story/42211.php

Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a method for mobile phones to convert silent mouth movements into speech. The technology is based on the principle of electromyography, that is the acquisition and recording of electrical potentials generated by muscle activity. This muscle activity is measured in the face and converted into speech.

An example is soundless calling.

The user can speak into the phone soundlessly, but is still understood by the conversation partner on the other end of the line. As a result, it is possible to communicate in silent environments, at the cinema or theater, without disturbing others. Another field of use is the transmission of confidential information.

For the transmission of passwords and PINs, for example, users can change seamlessly to soundless language and, hence, transmit confidential information in a tap-proof manner.

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http://recombu.com/news/soundless-calling-the-possibilities-are-endless_M11510.html

Soundless calling: The possibilities are endless

By Kate Solomon on Wednesday, 3rd March 2010

We love to speculate about future mobile phone features, and this is one that's got our imaginations racing. German researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been beavering away on a project that converts mouth movements into speech. Rather than making any sounds, your handset would decipher the movements your mouth makes by measuring muscle activity, then convert this into speech that the person on the other end of the call can hear. So, basically, it reads your lips.

The potential for secret conversations just got huge. If it's a particularly dull film, you could pass the time by making phone calls from the cinema without disturbing anyone. In noisy places like bars and clubs you could feasibly make yourself heard without having to shout. The technology would be particularly handy if you've been taken hostage but managed to work your bound hands free enough to retrieve your secret mobile, dial and get your face close enough for the technology to work. In a more every-day sense, people who insist on calling everyone they know while travelling on public transport can do so without the rest of the train carriage hearing about "our Tina's troubles" and the associated unpleasantness.

The Institute is presenting its research at this year's CeBIT show in Hanover, so don't expect to see this technology in a handset any time soon. But that just gives you plenty of time to come up with even more inventive uses for soundless calling, should it ever hit the mainstream.