Audeo "Think N' Spell" neckband allows voiceless phone calls

You know what's wrong with phone conversations? All that dang talking you have to do. Luckily for us, some scientists at Ambient Corporation are bent on fixing that with their "Audeo" wireless neckband which taps into nerve signals being sent to the vocal chords and vocalizes those "thoughts" for you -- without all that pesky implant nonsense. Users have to specifically think about voicing words for them to be picked up by the band, but it saves them from saying potentially sensitive things while on a cellphone in public. The device is also being aimed at those who have lost the ability to speak due to diseases such as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Currently the device can only recognize roughly 150 words and phrases, and has a decent delay between "speaking" with your mind and the computer vocalizing the words for you, but the upcoming version will be phenome-based and therefore allow you to speak anything -- though it will come at the cost of even slower recognition. Video is after the break.

[cjl @ Mar 13th 2008 9:55AM]

Hopefully you have to think about actually vocalizing the words - otherwise you'll have to have a pretty good filter so it doesn't say all the things you think - that could make things tricky.

[MrGam3r @ Mar 13th 2008 10:01AM]

yeah thats what I was thinking. If you were talking to your idiot boss with one of these....

[blarvh @ Mar 13th 2008 11:39AM]

"wireless neckband which taps into nerve signals being sent to the vocal chords"

"nerve signals being sent to the vocal chords"

"sent to the vocal chords"

[Tangible @ Mar 13th 2008 10:05AM]

I think you mean "phoneme", the smallest unit of vocalization. A phenome is the set of all phenotypes expressed by a cell, tissue, organ, organism, or species.

[mymaclife @ Mar 13th 2008 10:45AM]

Now if only someone can make a mobile phone that makes you think before you speak!

[asdfm,nasdkla @ Mar 13th 2008 10:11AM]

What's wrong with just texting someone something you dont want to say in public?

[Atanas Boev @ Mar 27th 2008 9:52AM]

Or, one could shove a BT trasmitter up his... nose, and transmit secret messages using morse-coded muscule contractions.

[DigDug @ Mar 13th 2008 10:17AM]

Man I gotta try this on my dog.

[brett @ Mar 13th 2008 11:21AM]

yeah, because "FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME!" is waaaaay less annoying than "WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!"...

[sully @ Mar 13th 2008 10:16AM]

This could make the process of dating a new SO much more difficult. You know...in that weird "get to know each other" phase.

I just imagine someone with some sort of fetish trying to not think about it, it's like a new generation of catholic style repression.

[Ari Moshe @ Mar 13th 2008 10:21AM]

Now this is definitely a technology that I can see becoming completely mainstream in the near future. It has so many potential uses and we are currently close to being able to do this kind of processing in real time on a mobile device (maybe future pocket PCs). I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

[Eric @ Mar 13th 2008 10:24AM]

Snake oil. Cold fusion is real too, right?

[OneLove @ Mar 13th 2008 10:30AM]

it is, see adobe.

[Eric @ Mar 13th 2008 10:43AM]

Got me. :-P

[OneLove @ Mar 13th 2008 10:33AM]

that guy looks like he hasn't eaten in years. lol.

[tony @ Mar 13th 2008 10:40AM]

stephen hawking, maybe. i know they only mention lou gherig's disease, but could people with motor neurone disease and other such afflictions use this?

[granny down east @ Mar 13th 2008 4:55PM]

Motor Neuron Associated Diseases (MNADs) include Lou Gehrig's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dementia often accompanies the MNAD. If the dementia has advanced to the point where the brain cannot shape the vocal chords, this device might not work. If dementia is not present, but the motor/neural pathways to the vocal chords are not functional, as in MNADs, the device might be useless.

I am almost convinced that this technology is "reading" the shape of the vocal chords and matching those contours to a vocabulary of words and inflections pre-recorded to a HDD.

[Arash @ Mar 13th 2008 10:45AM]

This is a hoax!

Similar technology will be available in the future. But this video is a hoax.

[frozo @ Mar 13th 2008 11:06AM]

I was thinking the same thing... they should have at least put the thing on someone in the audience and given them a list of available words. This is a HORRIBLE presentation.

[thebanman @ Mar 13th 2008 11:09AM]

Ghost in the shell already has this. So I guess we can see the future. What is next ghost hacking. It is somehow similar to those people who have a mike in the neck.

[Carl M @ Mar 13th 2008 1:59PM]

Anybody read Orson Scott Card? Remember "subvocalization"?

[MMalecky @ Mar 13th 2008 2:26PM]

Don't use this to talk to Jane when Novinha is around, she gets jealous.

[EdZ @ Mar 14th 2008 8:50PM]

Subvocalisaton is exactly what this is. It's voice recognition, but cuts out the transition from vocal cord vibrations to sound waves. The Cybercomms of Ghost in the Shell are at a much lower level. Whilst they are depicted as transmitting voice, they are in effect transmitting concepts picked up directly from the brain.

[Atanas Boev @ Mar 27th 2008 9:49AM]

An old russian sci-fi book, "Дом Скитальцев", had the same device too. It was called "laringophone".
I suspect KGB had a version of it, which could translate subvocalization attempts of an extremely drunk person...

[futurepastnow @ Mar 13th 2008 11:13AM]

The next step is to combine this with a bone-conduction speaker for completely silent conversations, and the next step after that is to implant them both. Combine that with a persistent 'net connection, and you've got functional telepathy.

[ePants @ Mar 13th 2008 11:21AM]

I can see this getting pretty humorous in its first few years of public use. I still have trouble telling if someone is having bluetooth conversation or just mumbling to themselves. Imagine the confusion when you initiate a conversation with someone only to have them tell you they're on the phone...despite their being completely silent. I guess it'll be that much easier to just ignore people by just ignoring them because you're "having silent a conversation" already. :]

That raises the question though, that if you're having a silent conversation on your cell, and then someone who doesn't know you're already having a conversation asks you something, what happens when you start to actually speak audibly to them? Seems like it'd be a good idea to have the device filter out actual audible speach in order to allow the option of "silently" (in regard to the person on the line) indicating to others physically present that you're busy.

Maybe a small LED "busy" light signal somewhere on the device would help smooth out the learning curve that the nuances of such a revolutionary device would bring into the culture.

[NewJohnny @ Mar 13th 2008 9:12PM]

I suggest a large flashing LED attached to the forehead.

[Craig @ Mar 13th 2008 11:24AM]

Too bad this technology wasn't around when my dad had ALS. Once perfected it'll mean a huge improvement in the quality of life for patients and their families.

[niels @ Mar 13th 2008 11:43AM]

Sorry but, thinking happens in the brain...not in the neck. How can this machine pick up thoughts in the neck? I call BS.

[Samo @ Mar 13th 2008 11:48AM]

Wow, brings the phrase 'speaking your mind' a whole new meaning.

[szitzma @ Mar 13th 2008 11:52AM]

Boy does this look phoney.

[jon @ Mar 13th 2008 11:55AM]

National Geographic, February 12, 2457.

"Within 300 short years, the entire human race had evolved without vocal chords at all, communicating only telepathically. Interestingly, they all grew gaunt and thin, their skin turned a pale transparent blue color, and their eyes bulged and slanted dramatically. Moreover, they discovered how to travel through time so that they could visit their descendants - but this seemed to only frighten the older humanoids."

[Dylan @ Mar 13th 2008 11:56AM]

Ever heard of the spinal coloumn?

besides, signals are sent from the brain to whatever it is controlling, it says in both the description and the video that these signals are "intercepted".

[soner @ Mar 13th 2008 11:57AM]

How come it doesn't vocalise what he actually speaks to the audience when presumably in the conversations detection mode?

[adamcpennington @ Mar 13th 2008 12:19PM]

To bad you can't hear the response without an earpiece. Sure they bypassed the audible speach mechainism, but I want telepathy. Then we have something to talk about. I hear the concerns already being the fear of giving away all the intimate thoughts of your heart. Be scary to talk to my girlfriend with one of those on.
http://adamcpennington.googlepages.com

[MMalecky @ Mar 13th 2008 2:31PM]

Well, I guess it could be used in conjunction with a cochlear implant, bypassing the ear.
However, the level of sensitivity of those devices isn't nearly good enough to justify use for non-deaf users.

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

[Sporkinum @ Mar 13th 2008 3:24PM]

That guy looks like some sort of regeneration of Dr Who.

[Garst @ Mar 13th 2008 3:35PM]

I will never use this it's too close to enabling tought crimes.

[j h @ Mar 13th 2008 4:09PM]

Please don't exhibit your lack of intelligence:

http://theaudeo.com/
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn13449-nervetapping-neckband-allows-telepathic-chat.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Thank you.

[Jon @ Mar 13th 2008 4:45PM]

I had the EXACT same Stephen Hawking thought as soon as I saw the video...

[Sauce @ Mar 13th 2008 7:59PM]

I was thinking of how Ender and Miro talked to Jane in the Ender's Game Series. Very Very interesting.

[mushrooshi @ Mar 13th 2008 9:11PM]

Weird Male teenager to a girl:

"Hey, um... Would you like to work on the Biology project with me. HOLY CRAP YOU ARE HOT I WANNA HAVE SE..."

[gip @ Mar 13th 2008 10:30PM]

I wonder if it would work on your dog haha jk.

[stevemo87 @ Mar 14th 2008 11:44AM]

http://www.engadget.com/2005/05/14/nasas-subvocal-speech-system/

The cake is a lie and so is this presentation.

"Subvocal speech recognition deals with electromyograms that are different for each speaker." -Wikipedia

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

Thus it would would not work with an audience member. Still there would be no other way to prove that it works because it could all be scripted.

NASA already tried to do this and said that the technology has a ways to go.