Mobile Phones with lip-reading facility in the making

You’re in this crowded bus in the peak hours of a Monday morning. You sit by a cosy window seat mulling over the key issues to be raised at the day’s meeting. Ah! This is the life. Just when you begin to nod off into the most delicious of naps, you hear this kid next to you scream. Startled, you turn toward the direction with concern. “Catch him right there! Yes! That fool. Hold on bro I’ll be there in a minute! Do you know…” The annoying little rascal is shouting away into his mobile phone.  Peeved big time, you suddenly realise that you’re surrounded by voices.

A mumbling little old lady, an arguing young man in crisp formals, a wooing teenager and a dozen of other ghost voices buzzing overhead. All of them connected to another world through their mobile phones. Will it be ever possible to escape these floating voices? Yes, very soon, it could be possible for you to carry out silent conversations through your mobile phones.

By simply moving your lips, the devices will be able to trace the words by measuring the electrical signals produced due to the movement of the speech muscles. Thus, you can carry out a conversation using your mobile phone by simply moving your lips! The prototype of this technology was launched at Cebit (Centre of Office and Information technology), the world’s largest computer expo that was held in Hanover, Germany.

The prototype is based on electromyography, a technique that is used for recording and evaluating the electrical activity produced by the skeletal muscles. Still in the development stage, the device at present requires about nine electrodes to be placed on the face of the user. It can record a person’s speech, even if it’s inaudible and regenerate a synthesised version of it later on.

In an interview with BBC News, Professor Tanja Shultz from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology said, “I was taking the train and the person sitting next to me was constantly chatting and I thought ‘I need to change this’” Though not ready for the mass market, the professor said that it could be further developed and incorporated into mobile handsets in the future.

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