Findings Could Lead to Improved Lip-Reading Training for the Deaf From: University of East Anglia - 09/09/2009 Machine lip-reading technology could help lip readers improve their ability to read others' lips. A University of East Anglia team led by Sarah Hilder contrasted the success rate of a machine lip-reading program with that of human lip readers. Machine readers had a success rate of 80 percent, while humans had a success rate of only 32 percent. Machines also could use an abstract face shape to interpret lips, while humans needed a video of a real person. Researchers gave volunteers with weak lip-reading skills a chance to try a new training program that improved their ability to interpret monosyllabic words in a few hours. The program, which is video-based, enabled users to see moving lips and gestures as opposed to two-dimensional drawings. "With just four hours of training, it helped them improve their lip-reading skills markedly," Hilder says. "We hope this research will represent a real technological advance for the deaf community." One possibility would be free online video lessons, says Royal National Institute for Deaf People campaign manager Agnes Hoctor. Read the entire article at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2009/sept/homepagenews/lipreading Links: Sarah Hilder s.hilder@uea.ac.uk Royal National Institute for Deaf People http://www.rnid.org.uk/ Agnes Hoctor http://www.rnid.org.uk/howyoucanhelp/work_with_us/jobs/employee_profiles/agnes_hoctor/