Yup, that sounds pretty incredulous indeed and this little gadget is as amazingly wonderful as it sounds. I suppose it’s not just something that is only useful for normal people but also to those unfortunate few who might have certain speaking disorders and hence could never have a proper telephonic conversation before. If this amazing neck band does indeed roll out in to the market then it might prove to be an absolute boon for plenty of people across the planet.
A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time. With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerized voice. Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, which developed the neckband, demonstrated the device, called the Audeo.
Users needn’t worry about that the system voicing their inner thoughts though. Callahan says producing signals for the Audeo to decipher requires “a level above thinking”. Users must think specifically about voicing words for them to be picked up by the equipment. The Audeo can word up to 150 words per minute and that is enough to have most decent conversations. At the end of the year Ambient plans to release an improved version, without a vocabulary limit. Instead of recognizing whole words or phrases, it should identify the individual phonemes that make up complete words.
That would indeed be great. I can think of a billion reasons to use it and I can also think of people who would want it. It should remind most of us of the days we used to sneak up at night and speak softly and secretly on phone with our sweetheart while our parents were asleep. That I suppose is an experience 99% of us would have gone through growing up. Now that delight can only become easier with this neckband!
