"Just think how eerie it would be, yet also how peaceful - people all around having conversations on their mobile phones, but without uttering a sound."

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7247

WOW.

If they pull it off, that's HUGE. What kind of changes to society follow? What kind of computer interfaces become possible. Is this the "end all be all" of speech to text?

I read this book called Earth, by David Brin (incidentally the guy who wrote the POstman, which was later turned into a movie), and they had something similar to what DARPA is working on. It was hooked to the throat and read what you thought of vocalizing, and your muscles would tense, and the interface would read what you were subvocalizing. The interesting aspect about it was how sensitive you could make it. The more sensitive it was set, the more stuff it would pick up in from your subconscious.
Appearantly, this thing DARPA is working on looks to work on the same principle. I wonder if you could do the same thing?

wow thats really interesting

i love reading the darpa site. they always have cool stuff to look forward to.

Don't alot of people talk on their cell phones to give people around them an image of themselves though? If this type of thing became required I'll bet cell phone usage would drop dramatically.

i'd be able to go on buses again without wanting to kill!althought there still would be ringtones...

For some reason, I don't think this will work. True the volume and pitch could be determined by the throat. I could even give you the difference between stop sounds and continuant sounds, but I think that's where the ability to determine by measuring the throat alone ends. You would have to know how the mouth and tongue were shaping the sound before you could determine exactly which sound. How would this device determine that?

My first reaction is to recall the unfortunate Belcebron of Kakrafoon:

It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as it 'It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."

His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably seized up.

After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working."

In fact, this second theory is more literally true of the Belcebron people of Kakrafoon.

The Belcebron people used to cause great resentment and insecurity amongst neighboring races by being one of the most enlightened, accomplished, and above all quiet civilizations in the Galaxy.

As a punishment for this behaviour, which was held to be offensively self righteous and provocative, a Galactic Tribunal inflicted on them that most cruel of all social diseases, telepathy. Consequently, in order to prevent themselves broadcasting every slightest thought that crossed their minds to anyone within a five mile radius, they now have to talk very loudly and continuously about the weather, their little aches and pains, the match this afternoon and what a noisy place Kakrafoon had suddenly become.

Douglas Adams (http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html)

Or something approximately like that.
____________________

Notes:

Adams, Douglas. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. 1988. See http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html

"Just think how eerie it would be, yet also how peaceful - people all around having conversations on their mobile phones, but without uttering a sound."

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7247

WOW.

If they pull it off, that's HUGE. What kind of changes to society follow? What kind of computer interfaces become possible. Is this the "end all be all" of speech to text?




Won't work because most people enjoy hearing themselves talk.

Seems silly...... but I wonder if this may help mute peop- wait a sec...... anyone knows what happnes to mute's voice-making organs?

that would take all the fun out of living wouldn't it. Why don't you just strap a diaper onto me 24/7 that way i never have to take a crap on a toilet seat.

My first reaction is to recall the unfortunate Belcebron of Kakrafoon:



Or something approximately like that.
____________________

Notes:

Adams, Douglas. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. 1988. See http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book2.html


Too true, too true--it would be the ultimate invasion of privacy, wouldn't it? What kind of society would develop if you could hear the thoughts of everybody within a certain radius? What KOS would develop even if we could hear all the time the thoughts of our neighbours/relatives/friends (so-called), (the last group only being called friends because they (for the most part) keep their thoughts about us private from us, and we can only guess what they think about us). That really could be the start of another thread. :D