MIT researcher aims to understand language with Human Speechome Project

It's far from the first time a researcher has enlisted the help of his own family or kids, but MIT's Deb Roy's latest endeavor looks to be a bit more ambitious than most, as he's aiming to do nothing short of understand how children learn language. To do that, Roy and his wife installed 11 video cameras and 14 microphones throughout their house to record just about every moment of their son's first three years. That, obviously, also required a good deal of computing power, which came in the form of a temperature-controlled data-storage room consisting of five Apple Xserves and a 4.4TB Xserve RAID (you can guess why Apple's profiling 'em), along with an array of backup tape drives and robotic tape changes (and an amply supply of other Macs, of course). While the project is obviously still a work in progress, they have apparently already developed some new methods for audio and video pattern recognition, among other things, and it seems they'll have plenty of work to sift through for years to come, with the project expected to churn out some 1.4 petabytes of data by the end of year three.

[Thanks, Jeff]

[Steve B @ Apr 24th 2008 2:54PM]

Oh my god, it's Mohinder Suresh...

[neozippo @ Apr 24th 2008 3:08PM]

hahahahhahah~~~ that answers my question. thx =]

[Mr.Tech @ Apr 24th 2008 3:14PM]

I just want to know how to defrag the human brain. I think the answer is "brain freeze from a overload of Bens & Jerry Strawberry Shortcake Swirl",

[M @ Apr 24th 2008 8:07PM]

@Steve

you probably think most all indians look alike. He doesn't look like the heroes character much:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Mohinder%20Suresh&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

[V3LOCIP3D3 @ Apr 25th 2008 3:42AM]

@ M

Buzzkill

[farfisa @ Apr 24th 2008 2:54PM]

Irreversible damage to child: Priceless.

[OSnix*-geek @ Apr 24th 2008 3:00PM]

My thoughts precisely.

So busy examining his sons life under a microscope, he may forget to actually enjoy his sons life, while he still can. Some might say well he has all that video and audio to "enjoy and remember it"... but I am also one of those people that will put down the video camera, or digital camera, and enjoy a moment in a non-digital totally analog human way, before I think, well at least I will have captured this moment digitally.

2 schools I suppose.

[Rainier @ Apr 24th 2008 3:06PM]

My understanding is that since it's automated, he would just interact with his child normally.

[Johan S @ Apr 24th 2008 3:21PM]

How does this cause irreversible damage? He is not changing anything about the interaction with the kid.

I'm sure he would interact with the child normally. If he is going to go through all this effort, to figure this out .. why would he cause his own results to be skewed? You don't think he is aware that changing interaction would skew things? Parents are supposed to watch their kid all the time anyway.

Do you know him?

Anyway, as for providing the video to OTHER researchers .. it definitely should be within parental rights to do it .. but personally I would wait till the kid turns 18 and can decide himself.

[Leo @ Apr 24th 2008 3:23PM]

I lawl'd. I challenge anybody to post a funnier response that's equally short. Not going to happen is it? You win my friend. Welcome to Highest Ranksville, Population: you.

[Doug @ Apr 24th 2008 2:55PM]

Couldn't they have just called it the Human Speech Project. I understand what they're trying to do... but Speechome??? Really?

[SurKaz @ Apr 24th 2008 3:41PM]

Everything sounds cooler with an "-ome" at the endome.

[phanbouy @ Apr 24th 2008 2:56PM]

"that's great, Deb. now let's see a seductive pose"

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 24th 2008 3:42PM]

"Vote for Pedro, and all of your wildest dreams will come true."

[Nate @ Apr 24th 2008 4:01PM]

"Speechome: Now with Unibrow!"

[Jon @ Apr 24th 2008 3:03PM]

I hope their child learns how to speak quickly. I know it took me almost 26 months to start talking. And then I started talking in full sentences, mainly directed at my little sister such as 'No Baby, No!'

[waiownsyou @ Apr 24th 2008 3:05PM]

What's the point of having a MacBook Pro stand and a monitor if the images are just being mirrored?

[ekwmin @ Apr 24th 2008 3:23PM]

That could be his screen saver. If you look closely you can see the mouse which looks like it's on a ergonomic keyboard tray under the cinema monitor. The MBP is way too high to type on while sitting. So I'm pretty sure he is using both monitors. Give the guy a break, he probably wanted to just show them off. PR shot for sure.

[Philip @ Apr 24th 2008 3:29PM]

its a powerbook anyway... :)

[Nick M. @ Apr 24th 2008 3:09PM]

anyone who knows anything about video would have gone with AVID systems.

[JJV @ Apr 24th 2008 3:30PM]

You do realize that the three big companies (and they all begin with A) in Video Editing and Software as well as hardware are Adobe AVID and APPLE. Any one of those three is a good choice for this work.

[OSnix*-geek @ Apr 24th 2008 3:33PM]

AVID is an NLE that runs on OS X or WINDOWS... so your point is? He wasn't editing a film about his kid, he was processing information.

The power of OS X in this case was the unix capability of sifting through the video to pull out motion, where there would be instances of interest.

[phanbouy @ Apr 24th 2008 3:58PM]

pwnage

[Nick M. @ Apr 24th 2008 5:28PM]

lol sorry I shoulda been a bit more sarcastic or added some tags....

[Nick M. @ Apr 24th 2008 5:41PM]

if you dealt with all the old school editors that are being forced to switch from AVID over to FCP like I do then you would have gotten it.

[Austin @ Apr 24th 2008 3:12PM]

Wasn't this the exact career of Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady? Next he'll find some poor cockney girl and turn her into a lady against her will. Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn.

[JAmerican @ Apr 24th 2008 3:19PM]

Is it me or does this guy love Apple or just gets a lot of funding from Apple LOL! Those Apple Displays are a waste of money being that their counterparts cost less. Let's not forget the low contrast ratio. :)

I can forsee a low-ranked in my future :).

[phanbouy @ Apr 24th 2008 3:27PM]

you sound like one of those idiots that Maddox parodies so well LOL

[Juaquin @ Apr 24th 2008 4:50PM]

Good point, horrible execution.

Should've gone with something like "Wow, all of that Apple gear must have cost a forture. So that's where all of MIT's tuition goes to. I mean, you could buy similar gear for a lot less money but I guess nothing says "private school with money to burn" like excessive use of Apple products"

Or something like that.

[ekwmin @ Apr 24th 2008 5:26PM]

Yeah, what a waste of money. He should have gone with this monitor!
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1278325

[ForumMaster @ Apr 24th 2008 3:27PM]

confused...this isn't new. i read about this project several years ago and even the most recent updates are only from janurary. not sure why this was posted now.

[kma @ Apr 24th 2008 3:36PM]

The arguments between him and his wife should provide good material for other researchers too. :-)
"Dammit, is that thing still on?!?"

[Munkcy @ Apr 24th 2008 3:57PM]

Forget your arguments. What about if they want to have husband and wife "private time" at any point in the next 3 years?

[Juaquin @ Apr 24th 2008 4:51PM]

I doubt they put a camera in their bedroom. Use a little common sense.

[Nate @ Apr 24th 2008 3:58PM]

Title should be: Yet another college student finds absurd way to obtain piles of free computers, high end software, Starbucks.

[Liam @ Apr 24th 2008 4:21PM]

Language acquisition... I love this sort of stuff. Hopefully I'll end up doing some of this stuff next year, as part of my linguistics course. It's bloody fascinating.

[MrGuru @ Apr 24th 2008 4:34PM]

Simpsons Did it!!!!

[Lein @ Apr 24th 2008 4:39PM]

Wow, just the kind of smug CRAPple grin that makes me passionately hate that company's fan base. This guy's just destined for middle-management.

[Zak @ Apr 24th 2008 5:49PM]

Yes I'm sure he's being smug because he has Apple equipment. Not because he's happy about the immense project he's undertaking.

You need professional help, please seek it out.

[Lein @ Apr 24th 2008 6:51PM]

Well let's see, his Apple laptop is floating, and he has an apple display, which are quite inferior in quality and performance to most modern LCDs.

No, I like the way I said it better.

[max @ Apr 24th 2008 4:50PM]

He looks just like Mohinder Suresh was my first thought when I saw the picture.

[Prhime @ Apr 24th 2008 5:02PM]

i hope he doesn't type on that notebook like that. he may need to dabble in a class on ergonomics

[Dekstar @ Apr 24th 2008 5:07PM]

You just know the only language that kid is going to be able to speak is 1337. Talk about a nerdy upbringing.

[XGM @ Apr 24th 2008 5:42PM]

Mac = Expensive
Dell = Cheap

Nobody needs to say that, so i don't think microphones are needed.

[Seth A @ Apr 24th 2008 6:35PM]

"Great the whole family is here! We have some Home Video to show you!!!"

Jezus, think about when that child gets around 8, and realizes that every second of his first three years is recorded.

[David M. @ Apr 24th 2008 7:45PM]

Wired did a story on this a while back, and they said that once his child understands that the cameras are there they will stop recording them (I think). Also, if there is something recorded that his private or embarrassing, whoever is in the room can press a button and delete the video from the embarrassing thing that just happened.

[Diego AC @ Apr 24th 2008 8:48PM]

Apple's science profile, and He's using a MICROSOFT Intellimouse Explorer!!!!!

What kind of iDiot do that? (I mean the photo)

[Schfelzerberg @ Apr 24th 2008 9:53PM]

My thoughts exactly. For all we know, he's running Windows on those Macs. LOL.

[gilcasanova @ Apr 24th 2008 11:21PM]

The guy looks more like M. Night Shyamalan than Dr. Suresh.

[HenryJonesJr @ Apr 25th 2008 11:45AM]

Ryan Seacrest needs to cut back on the tanning bed.