Vocal Joystick lets your voice do the browsing

There's a multitude of options out there for handicapped individuals who want to surf the 'net, but a team at the University of Washington is adding one more by developing software that can convert one's voice into cursor commands. Notably, the Vocal Joystick doesn't rely on any speech recognition technology; instead, it "detects [vowel] sounds 100 times a second and instantaneously turns that sound into movement on the screen." Users are then able to move the mouse around the screen and click on links by simply making a variety of noises, and the cursor even speeds up as the person increases his / her volume. 'Course, we're not exactly sure how text is inputted into the address bar, so you'd better have your favorites fully stocked before relying solely on this. Hit the read link for a video demonstration.

[Via Physorg]

[Standingfast @ Oct 10th 2007 8:12AM]

Wow, his software is much faster to use than the Dragon speaking software. I think this is kind of neat.

[asgfd @ Oct 10th 2007 8:22AM]

Finally we can replace the "go to top of page" link with yelling "up, up, and away!"

[Le Master @ Oct 10th 2007 8:44AM]

I've had one of these since I was a wee pup.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armatron

Except back then we used our hands.

[Zach @ Oct 10th 2007 4:41PM]

To blow yourself up in Tomb Raider II, it's U B U B L L L U.

[FrankTheCrank @ Oct 10th 2007 8:50AM]

U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,A,B

[Zenshai @ Oct 10th 2007 9:19AM]

fatality?

[Le Master @ Oct 10th 2007 9:31AM]

Holy shit, that's an extra lives cheat for Contra for the NES.

[Ryan @ Oct 10th 2007 12:31PM]

actually 30 lives in Contra is U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-B-A-B-A

[Matthew Hilario @ Oct 10th 2007 4:42PM]

@ryan
you actually have to press select and then start too.
uuddlrlrbaba select start..

i assume watching youtube videos of monkeys would just make the cursor go wild.

[Ryan @ Oct 10th 2007 6:31PM]

true, start is also needed for one player, select+start for two players.

[Zach @ Oct 10th 2007 9:27AM]

I'm in a library now. This hardly seems practical.

[L. Cyphre @ Oct 10th 2007 11:57AM]

Oh come on, this is *soooo* last millenium.
Brainwave interfaces are what's in *today*.

[Matthew Hilario @ Oct 10th 2007 4:43PM]

alpha and theta waves are overrated.