March 23, 2004
| A Little Bangla Humor >>
The Voice Inside (And Just Below) Your Head
I don’t want to make this into a gee-whiz-lookit-that kinda blog here, but this is so 2001 it hurts:
It turns out that when you read or talk silently to yourself — you know, the ol’ internal monologue — your brain actually still sends subtle signals to your tongue and vocal cords. They’re not strong enough to make you start gabbing, but they are strong enough for a computer to detect. A super-smart NASA computer.
So NASA now has the beginnings of a system to recognize this “subvocal speech,” which they will use to, you know, control rovers and stuff.
But mark my words — mark my words! — in the year 2025 we’re all going to be wearing little dingbats on our necks and mumbling to our cars and cell phones.
(Thanks to Gizmodo for the link!)
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Comments
This is great. The only difference right now between cell phones and telepathy is that you have to talk out loud to use a cell phone, thereby annoying bystanders. Add a subvocal pickup and a voice synthesizer on the other end and you can *think* to someone. The way this technology is going reminds me of David Brin's thesis that "psi may not exist now, but it's clearly something we'd LIKE to have. And people have an unsettling way of eventually getting what they want." Further details in this article.
so, when i wake up at 7am on a sunday, the world seems new and inspiring more than usual, somehow. but, somehow it's still just as difficult to form a grammatically correct sentence. it's good to happen upon snarkmarket this morning.
alas, in relation to this Gizmodo artical, think about the impending unemployment our ears may be facing. sound travels via waves and air pressure, and virtually any part of our body can respond to those, SO, all we need are a few more of those stickies with string attached like they are on that fellow's neck, and slowly our ears will crust over and reveal smooth sides to a head that will have as many useful features as, say, a bowling ball.
and the brain will just have more room to grow.
i think it's splendid.