MIT New Technology: Headphones that can speak without opening

Such a headset is almost something that exists in our past illusions, but now it is no longer far away from us.

You can communicate with each other without opening your mouth. I believe you must have seen similar bridges in some novels or movies. Recently, a research team from MIT has developed a new technology to make this wish come true. true.

The device, called AlterEgo, consists of a computer and a wearable device. The computer part is responsible for information calculation, while the wearable part is responsible for information collection and transmission. As you can see, it is very different from the wearable devices that we often see on the day. Although it is a prototype, it looks more like an instrument used to correct the muscles of the face.

The instrument actually has two parts, a sensor for capturing facial and mandibular neuromuscular signals, which senses nerve movement by fitting the face; and a bone conduction earpiece for feeding back signal processing results to the wearer.

According to the official statement, the researchers found that the human language signal is actually triggered internally, that is, before you open your mouth, the nerve signal has already appeared and reached the jaw. This kind of signal that the human eye can't detect can be captured. Therefore, as long as the machine can understand the meaning of this electrical signal, it will "understand" what you said. According to this idea, you are not difficult. Understand why the prototype is designed this way.

Although it sounds difficult to understand, just look at what it can do and you will know how amazing it is. In the researchers' imagination, this device is a new human-computer communication platform that allows you to perform three operations without speaking.

The first one is the Internet of Things control. For example, when you watch TV or listen to music, you only need to operate in your mind, you can control these operations without opening your mouth. It is very simple to change the TV channel and cut the song. The AlterEgo is the equivalent of today's smart speakers, so you can control your home appliances when you no longer need to open your mouth.

The second function is to act as a personal assistant. The voice assistant has been around for so many years, but we are still not used to waking up and manipulating in public. But with this instrument, you only need to meditate some tasks in your heart, and the computer will "understand". And tell you the results, such as query time, or ask the weather, even in the supermarket to buy things to calculate the total price, you can directly meditation, let AlterEgo's built-in calculator tell you the results, according to official assumptions, this personal assistant who can not open Translate for you, help you search, check words, perform calculations, and set alarms. You can even let the computer tell you the next step when you play chess.

The third function is social. Although it sounds a bit dreamy, in fact, when people around you wear the AlterEgo device, it is achievable to hear what the other party wants to express without opening the door. This is equivalent to passing the original words directly to In the other party's headset, the communication with the Internet of Things in the first way is similar.

Imagine a lot of suitable scenes

The above three are all based on the electrical signals transmitted by the muscles, and the artificial intelligence makes a corresponding judgment on the understanding of the electrical signals. In the end, this is similar to the logic of the artificial intelligence assistant understanding the voice operation, but it is not easy.

Arnav Kapur, a student at the MIT Media Lab, said the prototype was originally designed to build an "IA device," or "intelligence-augmentaTIon" device, just as its English name AlterEgo stands for "another one." "They imagine that this device will become a real assistant to humans in the future, or in Kapur's words, "in some ways, the integration of people and computers, and let us know the expansion."

In the practical sense, the project instructor Professor PatTIe Maes believes that with the increasingly close relationship between people and smart phones, it has also brought about certain destructiveness. For example, when people and people need to search for certain results or query information, the communication will be forced to be interrupted by the mobile phone, and the new interactive experience can undoubtedly change this destructiveness. It may not replace the mobile phone, but it can do better.

Of course, from the current research, AlterEgo also has no small challenge, although researchers have discovered a correlation between body language expression and neuromuscular signals since the 19th century, but how this relationship is expressed, how can the computer Transforming neuromuscular signals into the right language is a difficult part. Even now, the researchers have discovered that the specific position of the jaw has the ability to communicate electrical signals, but it takes a lot of effort to fully extend this possibility to a fully usable situation.

In addition, you may be curious about the accuracy of the device. The researchers tested the 10 testers for 15 minutes and asked them to calculate the math problem with the matching device. It was found that the AlterEgo system has an accuracy of 92 on the project. %, this sounds like a good news.

When it comes to other ways of using signals without a mouth, Thad Starner, a professor at Georgia Tech, says, "For example, if you want to control an airplane on the tarmac of an airport, the huge noise at that time is usually not communicated by voice. Imagine In a similar situation, when the surrounding environment is high noise, such as aircraft carriers, power plants, printing presses, etc., this is a meaningful system.” He also believes that in some people with physical disabilities, this device can help them achieve better life.

Although AlterEgo is still in the prototype stage, the shape is exaggerated and not suitable for public use. But this research undoubtedly shows us another use of artificial intelligence technology, and tries to further "integrate" with the machine. When the related technology is iterative and mature, I believe that one day we will see people A shocking consumer product.