NASA engineers are developing a technology that picks up and translates throat signals into words before they’re even spoken.

According to neuroengineer Chuck Jorgensen , when you’re reading, sometimes you find that your tongue or your lips are moving but you’re not making an audible sound. An electronic signal is being sent to produce that speech but you’re intercepting it so it doesn’t really say it out loud. That’s subvocal speech.

Electrodes cling below Jorgensen’s chin picking up electronic signals that the body sends to vocal chords. He amplifies the signals and uses neural network software to decipher word patterns.

Those sounds create waves that electrodes pick up and funnel into a neural net which recognizes the pattern and the label—or word—that Jorgensen assigns to that pattern. Over time, word repetition and processing enable the introduction of new patterns or words.

During a demo before a wide screen, Jorgensen can direct a simulated Mars rover over Martian terrain. It dips, falls, climbs over craters and turns abruptly to the left and right, all at Jorgensen’s prompting, all without him uttering a sound.

Of course, conversational speech is very different from uttering a word and it’s unclear how well the system would recognize subvocal speech during conversation.

Still, the expectation that subvocal speech devices might retool communication is high. Applications could include communication in covert operations with military troops, situations where you can’t speak normally, underwater or in fire gear, or possibly where there’s high noise or you have a respirator. One day, scientists might even develop a silent cell phone.

And, best of all, the technology could improve the life of people suffering from speech ailments.

Via ScienCentral News.
Credit photo: NASA Ames Research Center, Dominic Hart.