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See the original image at technology.newscientist.com

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat

technology.newscientist.com — A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time. With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them in

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  • wemustbenuts, on 03/13/2008, -12/+4Cool! If only they could invent books that could transmit to your brain. All those hours cramming in college... giving up, and sticking the book under the pillow, with the feeble hope that some of the stuff would end up sticking to the grey matter.
    • sifuchar, on 03/13/2008, -0/+4Forget that, people would just cheat. You could have a friend sit with the book and silently ask him the questions over cellphone.
    • themastersb, on 03/13/2008, -1/+1Soon mutes will be able to talk and blind people will be able to see. who knows what's next...
      • FTLJohnson, on 03/13/2008, -0/+5Web commenters that know how to write?
      • Markpdotcom, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1This technology requires use of vocal muscles, if someone has been mute from birth its unlikely they would be able to use this.
        • Fafnir43, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1Subtly wrong. It picks up the nerve impulses /leading/ to the vocal cords. If someone already knows how to talk but has lost the use of their vocal cords, they'll be able to use this. (And someone mute from birth /might/ be able to learn how to use it, especially if they receive it from an early age.)
  • ennTOXX, on 03/13/2008, -14/+1OK, I have to see this in action... :||
    • seattle98104, on 03/13/2008, -0/+15Did you read the article? The part about the video at right demonstrating the device? No? Are you reading this, or are you just clicking the thumbs down?
  • HueytheFreeman, on 03/13/2008, -10/+4HAX!
  • dodgejon, on 03/13/2008, -4/+25This is going to bring arguments with the wife to a whole new level since I wont be able to hold back my thoughts...
    • noahhoward, on 03/13/2008, -2/+11"Users needn't worry about that the system voicing their inner thoughts though. Callahan says producing signals for the Audeo to decipher requires "a level above thinking". Users must think specifically about voicing words for them to be picked up by the equipment."

      You should be safe to think 'Jesus look at the rack on that' all you want. At least until you get to the point where you can hit the 'level above thinking' without thinking.
      • dodgejon, on 03/13/2008, -2/+10You obviously havent had an argument with my wife....Its safe to say Im thinking a level above "normal" thinking...
    • trogdor282, on 03/13/2008, -0/+5Think of typing. With enough practice your thoughts sorta just flow to the keyboard, yet you can still control what you type. This just cuts the muscles out of the equation.
    • Trollhammaren, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1Not to mention it could give a new depth of authenticity to ventriloquism if it could function in real time.
  • bromac, on 03/13/2008, -9/+3This is great, now I can chat with the actress with both my hands free.
    • ApokalypseNow, on 03/13/2008, -2/+2One word dude - Bluetooth.
      (alternately - speakerphone).
  • lnxfi, on 03/13/2008, -10/+3No one needs to hear what I'm really thinking.
  • MisterNipples, on 03/13/2008, -3/+18Subvocal communication and computer input devices.... thank you William Gibson!
  • revmhatt, on 03/13/2008, -11/+3Even a greater douchebag accessory than the bluetooth headset.
    • noahhoward, on 03/13/2008, -1/+13People like you have got to be the biggest hurdle to technology ever.
    • ApokalypseNow, on 03/13/2008, -0/+8At least with this I won't hear someone talking in my direction, assume they're speaking to me, turn around and ask them "huh?" and stare for a moment before realizing that its the tiny headset they're actually talking to.
      • Logicexe, on 03/13/2008, -0/+3Seriously, this thing is a step in the right direction.
    • bitcloud, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1You're right...

      but history will remember "in the late 20th century, the first bionic humans appeared. Douchebags were the pioneers of this new breed of humanity."

      That along with the historical documents of the first robotic words "C1al15 and V1a9R4"
    • sysop073, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1I know, those assholes and their not bothering people, how dare they
  • schneb, on 03/13/2008, -10/+6Great, people everywhere can't stop yacking on their cell phones. Now they will talk nonsense in their sleep. But at least this will not bother me in public.
    • noahhoward, on 03/13/2008, -1/+5What? Why would this have anything to do with talking in your sleep?
      • paperclipsNsoup, on 03/13/2008, -2/+2When your in REM sleep your muscle twitch including your vocal chords... If you had this thing on when you were asleep, who knows what kind of nonsense you might come up with (once the 150 word limit is surpassed, or the phonemes method works at natural speeds)
        • bitcloud, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1not sure why you're being dugg down...

          you're spot on
      • Markpdotcom, on 03/13/2008, -0/+4I think he saw the picture linked with the article and went straight to post, rather than actually reading the article ;)
  • Furkle, on 03/13/2008, -3/+12Holy crap I want it now.
  • SillyDigger, on 03/13/2008, -3/+12and you thought the NSA was bad now.
    • msfwebdude, on 03/13/2008, -2/+1Yeah I hated those damn water filters!
    • Fafnir43, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1I'm not sure how they could really use this specifically - I mean, FTA it sounds like you have to concentrate to some degree to use it, just as you would if you were actually speaking. It couldn't be used in interrogations, and if you were trying to use it for eavesdropping you'd need to find some way to apply it to the target - not really going to happen.
      • danomagnum, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1yet, just wait till the technology gets a little better... big brother will be watching, and listening... to our thoughts.
  • cipicip, on 03/13/2008, -4/+2That's voodoo, baby! :-)
  • Wangzero, on 03/13/2008, -3/+16METAL GEAR!?!
    • Versh, on 03/13/2008, -1/+8I was going to say Ghost in the Shell, but yeah, that too..
  • TheOneTrueGod, on 03/13/2008, -8/+3That's awesome! Can they use it to record music from the mind? :)
    • eouw0o83hf, on 03/13/2008, -1/+0No.
    • FTLJohnson, on 03/13/2008, -0/+5If you can sing subvocally... yes. Otherwise, unless you find a way to tell your nervous system to generate the sounds of an amped guitar playing with a 26 string orchestra - no. It records the signals sent to your vocal chords... You only have one set of those. Those signals, being sent to a computer could result in a different output... sure... Like having your voice become the sound of a flute? Why not. However, considering that you do not have the nerve pathways to send signals to multiple sets of vocal chords at once... Full blown symphonies would not be possible. I do however, imagine that someone will come up with musical recording uses for this - especially for the non-instrumentally inclined that can still hold a tune with their voices.
      • Trollhammaren, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1I know what half of Digg would want to sing subvocally with a different voice. "This was a triumph..."
    • Tearlock, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2Why are people digging this guy down? Though it's a bit naive/fantastic, it's a valid question. It makes sense though that subvocal singing would work so long as whatever is sythesizing the vocal sound is calibrated to correct pitch. This is all assuming that the facilitating technology can interpret pitch.
      • bitcloud, on 03/14/2008, -0/+1you'd have to train it to interpret the scale of the nerves expanding/contracting your vocal chords, but it's an awesome idea...

        maybe a little beyond what most people are able to envisage, but it WILL happen, whether they digg down the commenter or not..
  • Frost9999, on 03/13/2008, -5/+13Next I would like them to hook one up to a dog.
  • Modestexcuse, on 03/13/2008, -8/+3What, so now not only do I hear my wife yelling and nagging, I can feel it too? No thanks!
  • myotive, on 03/13/2008, -7/+4I can see a very practical application to this: Putting it on crazy people and just seeing what happens.
    • forgedfour, on 03/13/2008, -1/+1crazy people say what they think anyway, that's how you know their crazy.
  • LordMonboddo, on 03/13/2008, -5/+3This inspires many clever comments, all of them too tasteless to post.
    • nekochan, on 03/13/2008, -1/+2when has that stopped anyone on here?
    • RhodesSkolar, on 03/13/2008, -0/+0Inspiration is a wonderful thing to be tasteless about :o)
  • orangetiki, on 03/13/2008, -7/+2interesting way to see into people's dreams (if they mumble in their sleep). Freud would be envious
  • slashbot, on 03/13/2008, -0/+35Do people realize this device isn't reading your mind? You have to train yourself so that you go through all the motions of talking but without creating the sound.

    This device would be useful for those who have lost the ability to talk for one reason or another, but still have the nerves there for this device to work
    • Fafnir43, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1It's still pretty incredible tech, though, and the training doesn't sound like it would be difficult. Besides, while it's not telepathy, it /is/ moving along precisely the right lines for the development of full VR...
  • MacPhill, on 03/13/2008, -6/+2And I thought the satellite phone delay was bad.
  • stonedthot, on 03/13/2008, -5/+1Stuff is getting pretty damn cool these days. 'mon the future!
  • JosefH, on 03/13/2008, -7/+5Phone Sex in meetings! HECK YEAH!
  • Merendino, on 03/13/2008, -4/+3Well screw evolution... we'll move forward our own damn selves!
  • pegothejerk, on 03/13/2008, -4/+1You can bet this will see the real world for sure thanks to the field this will become a necessity for: security and military tasks. As most of you know, a great deal of our products (food included) come from military projects. This simply will not be let to fall through the cracks in the floor. Hurray for proving people wrong when they say there's nothing new under the sun!
  • 1807, on 03/13/2008, -5/+5No thanks the voices in my head keep me busy enough as it is.
  • PresidentSoup, on 03/13/2008, -4/+6Ghost in the Shell action goin on here.
  • havokzero, on 03/13/2008, -7/+3One step closer to true virtual reality.

    +1 Digg
  • dolemite01, on 03/13/2008, -2/+11I can't wait for this...I personally suffer from a disease that attacks the nerves that allow my vocal cords to move when I speak, most the time out of the year my vocal cords are paralyzed and never come together forming my voice so when I speak I sound extremely raspy or a grandmother on cigarettes, but when they do come together I sound like james earl jones and its hilarious to watch people who have become used to my raspiness jump when my voice is back
  • jeffchuck, on 03/13/2008, -2/+7Have I been on the internets too long if I thought that it said "telepathic cat"?
    • eouw0o83hf, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2Haha, that's what I read the first time as well...I suppose this is just as interesting...
    • CCB0x45, on 03/13/2008, -1/+1BRAINS READIN CAT IS IN UR MINDZ!
      /had to
    • ReyX, on 03/13/2008, -1/+4I'M IN YOUR HEAD REEDIN YUR THAUTS
  • nowyouuknow, on 03/13/2008, -6/+2holy *****.
  • omnithought, on 03/13/2008, -7/+2I think on my robe and wizard hat
  • cbittle, on 03/13/2008, -5/+1I need to find a way to hack one of these. Hawking: "What're you doing, Dave?"
  • finalblue, on 03/13/2008, -2/+3I'm sure that there is a difference between consciously attempting to form words and sentences versus passing and subconscious thoughts.
    • Merendino, on 03/13/2008, -0/+3passing and subconscious thoughts would be much harder to effectively pinpoint because those thoughts are far more abstract and internal, whereas when thinking about motor movements and such, they are very well defined and have a specific signature attached to them. You are correct there is a huge difference between thinking, and physically moving, in terms of neural activity.
  • leerayIG88, on 03/13/2008, -4/+2im in your head stealing your thoughts.
  • angusm, on 03/13/2008, -2/+4The British army used to use - may still use, for all I know - a radio system called Clansman, which had an optional "throat mike" accessory. The throat mike was a strap you could fasten around your neck, with a small microphone that was supposed to press against your larynx, allowing you to talk on the radio without having to speak audibly. In my experience, it didn't work worth a damn unless you pulled the strap tight enough to practically cut off your air supply (which is lots of fun if you're also carrying a load of equipment and/or weapons over rough terrain).

    If the new invention works better and doesn't require you to garotte yourself to make it work, it'll make a lot of infantry radio operators very happy.
  • Merendino, on 03/13/2008, -2/+9why is everything getting dugg down?
    • nekochan, on 03/13/2008, -0/+8because people don't understand subvocalization, and that makes people who do mad.
    • wedgemartin, on 03/13/2008, -2/+5I've noticed a big trend towards this lately. Apparently there are more assholes out there than we all realized... As soon as you see a new article pop up, with 20 or so comments, you can see that someone goes through and just dings everything for no apparent reason.
      • Merendino, on 03/13/2008, -0/+5and thats the thing... theres no reason really. I can understand some of these comments being dugg down, but for christs sake... why are some of the more intelligent comments getting that way. Who are these people?
        • yodaj007, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2Mormans.
        • wemustbenuts, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2I may be one of those stupid commenters. It would appear just about every comment I have made in the past few days gets dugg down. No more comments from me!
    • drugged, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2I think they're being dugg down because no one seems to have read teh article, and the title is a bit misleading. It's not telepathy, it's more like sending morse code using the nerves in the back of your neck rather than tapping it out on a telegraph key.
  • Pyromite78, on 03/13/2008, -1/+2... this seems just a little complicated. That guy seems like he's straining just to get the words out of his nervous system and into the device. The only REAL reasonable application for this I would think would be for speech pathologists and therapy. My father was recently in the hospital on a ventilator and occasionally he would wake and try to talk which was not easy with a breathing tube in your throat. This device would have been extremely useful in that situation.
    • eouw0o83hf, on 03/13/2008, -0/+5Another REAL reasonable application would be a demonstrable step toward a new technology, enabling vocally-disabled people to talk. And people to talk on cell phones all the time without actually saying anything out loud...which I wouldn't mind so much...
  • doctechnical, on 03/13/2008, -3/+2This looks like a solution in search of a problem. With "careful training" you could learn Morse code and communicate much more with far less technology.
    • Merendino, on 03/13/2008, -0/+4like the man said though.. diseases that leave the motor functions of the body useless, but the brain is still completely intact. This could be what any quadriplegic or similar person is hoping for... a way to communicate with others. If nothing else they'll at least be able to talk to others and that might ease some of their pain.
  • mydingaling, on 03/13/2008, -1/+7It's great! We can do *anything* now that Science has invented Magic.
  • zantos420, on 03/13/2008, -2/+2this could be really interesting especially in dreams... wonder what could be recorded...
    • eouw0o83hf, on 03/13/2008, -1/+3Nothing. It doesn't read your mind, it reads the nerves controlling your vocal cords. I suppose it could record what you say vocally in your sleep, which, in my case, tends to be something like "touhf abwieibf vukb aurb braubfh uairuhve;" but, on the other hand, so can a tape recorder.
    • norman619, on 03/13/2008, -1/+3Well considering that your body is usually paralyzed while you are sleeping I'm willing to bet not a whole lot.
  • norman619, on 03/13/2008, -0/+11Telepathic my arse.
    • nekochan, on 03/13/2008, -3/+2exactly. IT'S NOT ***** TELEPATHIC. IT'S HOOKED TO YOUR THROAT, NOT YOUR HEAD. YOU KNOW HOW SOMETIMES YOUR THROAT TWITCHES WHEN YOU'RE THINKING REALLY HARD? IT RECORDS THAT.
    • Spoomeister, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1If you're using your arse, you're doing it wrong.
  • ubitendo, on 03/13/2008, -3/+1So is this supposed to be a real life version of the codec in the Metal Gear Solid games?
  • plasticated, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1Come on future, im waiting!!!
  • dn11, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2why is it so freaking slow?
  • lacr, on 03/13/2008, -0/+0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow-Lingual

    To the barking post, they already figured this out for dogs!
  • crazyman, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2Ten years and this thing will be AWESOME!
  • PunchMeIBleed, on 03/13/2008, -3/+1ghost in the shell anyone?
  • asdf2000, on 03/13/2008, -0/+1So do you have to think the words you want to say in your head to get it to work,

    or do you have to think about SAYING the words to get it to work?
  • m0d0, on 03/13/2008, -0/+2A sign of things to come -

    Dr. Peter Venkman: Whoa! Ho! Ho! Whoa-oa!
    Gozer: The Traveller has come!
    Dr. Peter Venkman: Nobody choosed anything!
    [turns to Egon]
    Dr. Peter Venkman: Did you choose anything?
    Dr. Egon Spengler: No.
    Dr. Peter Venkman: [to Winston] Did YOU?
    Winston Zeddemore: My mind is totally blank.
    Dr. Peter Venkman: *I* didn't choose anything...
    [long pause, Peter, Egon and Winston all look at Ray]
    Dr Ray Stantz: I couldn't help it. It just popped in there.
    Dr. Peter Venkman: [angrily] What? *What* "just popped in there?"
    Dr Ray Stantz: I... I... I tried to think...
    Dr. Egon Spengler: LOOK!
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