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NASA's Chief Scientist for Neuroengineering - Chuck-Jorgensen (Credit: NASA)
In two years time a technology that will enable users to speak without uttering a sound might become commercially available. The ability to communicate silently could assist us in every day situations such as a phone conversation on a crowded subway or simply anytime we'd prefer that others wouldn't hear us. It could aid security and special operations forces, people with vocal cord problems, and might even find a place in gaming.
ester with subvocal system electrodes (Credit: NASA)
Seven years ago a modest NASA research program aimed at developing the ability to capture, analyze, and recreate subvocal speech was initiated as part of NASA's Extension of the Human Senses program. The subvocal speech-recognition research, headed by Dr. Charles Jorgensen, was initially aimed at developing silent communication and speech augmentation in extremely noisy environments such as the space station. It soon became clear that the technology could have many other applications as well; it could enable bodyguards, security personal, or Special Forces during highly covert operations to communicate without detection, and tank commanders to give orders even during noisy fighting conditions. The technology also has many civilian applications, enabling users to talk with privacy even in the company of others or in very noisy environments. Firefighters and other help and rescue personal could use the technology in their daily routines (as this NASA video shows), as could people with vocal cord disorders.
Finally, the technology could find its way into the gaming market as a way to send specific commands to team members in multiplayer games.
Subvocal speech is silent, or sub-auditory, speech, such as when a person silently reads or talks to himself. Even when reading or speaking to oneself with or without actual lip or facial movement, biological signals arise. While using the NASA subvocal system, a person thinks of a phrase and talks to himself so quietly that it can't be heard; despite that, the tongue and vocal cords receive speech signals from the brain that are detected and analyzed using a small electrode placed on the throat. Jorgensen created a neural net to analyze electrical patterns recorded by the electrodes and by 2004 he reached a 99% recognition rate with a small number of words in addition to vowels and consonants. Jorgensen's goal is to be able to reach a stage in which it would be possible to interface his subvocal technology with existing speech recognition systems, thus allowing full subvocal recognition. In addition, Jorgensen and his team are striving to improve exiting electrodes, transforming them into more advanced and conferrable sensors. Jorgensen foresees such advanced sensors embedded in either clothing or some sort of adorned simple appliance, allowing the electrical signals to be picked up in a non-invasive, convenient, and comfortable way.
