Voice recognition without the voice
Prototype measures facial muscles used when a person speaks
From: IDG New Service - 05/05/2004
By: Martyn Williams

NTT DoCoMo Inc. demonstrated a prototype speech recognition system during a
rare tour of its Yokosuka, Japan, R&D center. The system uses
electromyography, or EMG, to measure the electrical activity in facial
muscles used when a person speaks. Mouthing the words without sounds means
the user of such a system could communicate in a noisy room. For the system
to work, three electrodes have to be touching certain areas of the face to
measure the electrical activity. In a demo, a user had sensors mounted on his
thumb and first two fingers. The thumb was placed under his chin, the
forefinger was held vertically touching his cheekbone, and the second finger
held just above his top lip. This strange pose doesn't impede the mouthing of
words.  

After three years, the prototype can recognize the five Japanese vowels.
Developers are also working on other languages, says Tomoyuki Ohya, director
of NTT DoCoMo's Multimedia Signal Processing Lab. But first, they have to
tackle Japanese consonants. 

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/05/05/HNnovoice_1.html

Contributed by Marsha Allen