Arnav Kapur, a researcher in the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab, demonstrates the AlterEgo project.

April 4, 2018

Image: Lorrie Lejeune/MIT-->

Computer system transcribes words users “speak silently”

Electrodes on the face and jaw pick up otherwise undetectable neuromuscular signals triggered by internal verbalizations.

Larry Hardesty | MIT News Office

     Rearchers have developed a computer interface that can transcribe words that the user verbalizes internally but does not actually speak aloud.

     The system consists of a wearable device and an associated computing system. Electrodes in the device pick up neuromuscular signals in the jaw and face that are triggered by internal verbalizations — saying words “in your head” — but are undetectable to the human eye. The signals are fed to a machine-learning system that has been trained to correlate particular signals with particular words.

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