Silent speech with ultrasound

(alephneuro.com)

33 points | by chrwn 3 days ago

6 comments

  • ehead 4 minutes ago
    These guys are on a roll!
  • gblargg 48 minutes ago
    I remember a story decades ago about "subvocal" speech, similar to this: https://spacenews.com/nasa-develops-system-to-computerize-si...
  • nine_k 54 minutes ago
    That could be immensely helpful for people who cannot speak due to vocal chord problems.

    It could also be the ultimate, always-on remote control for everything around, with a near-zero error rate.

  • hdjrudni 2 days ago
    > The two biggest hardware challenges are reducing the size and weight of the ultrasound probe and replacing ultrasound gel with a more practical coupling material, such as hydrogel. We think both are solvable, making it possible for the probe to eventually become a lightweight wearable or adhesive patch.

    Not sure I'd want to put an adhesive patch on my neck every morning so I can silently talk to an LLM in the cubicle farm. I hope this is not our future.

    Very cool tech though and surprisingly good results for so little training.

    I think time might be better spent improving a lip reading model (no adhesive required), assuming we're unable to read brainwaves directly.

    • delichon 2 hours ago
      Keeping a camera focused on the lips could get awkward. A hands free throat patch may be more ergonomic.
  • ubedan 2 days ago
    Wonderful tech, and video example. I think there may also be a special forces application, but I don't know enough about how well their current solution works.

    In the office, a non-contact video solution (lip reading) is likely to be far more popular, but a lot depends on which is more accurate.

  • readthenotes1 2 hours ago
    I wonder if, like with lip reading, they switch from American English to a different language that's not so peculiar they would have and much less error rate
    • nine_k 58 minutes ago
      I suppose Spanish or German would be easier to recognize than English, due to the more distinct sounds, but Chinese would be much harder, due to the tones.
    • m463 1 hour ago
      reminds me of the handwriting recognition language Graffiti from palm/handspring days.

      It ended up altering my handwriting even after I stopped using it.