Ventriloquism, No Longer Just for Dummies

A new technology developed by Ambient Corporation has the interesting ability to allow you to talk without talking. This might sound strange, but it's a very intuitive and creative idea. Their technology, called Audeo, can read the nerve signals a person sends from their brain to their vocal cords and translate these signals into the words the person would be saying had they actually spoke. One the biggest concerns many people might have is if their inner thoughts were detected and transmitted, a potentially detrimental scenario. However, Ambient Corp. says that the device requires the user to go "a level above thinking" to actually initiate the device. There are many applications for this technology such as making a private phone call during a meeting or while in a public place. Audeo has also been used by a person in a wheel chair to control the wheel chair by thinking different words, and then Audeo transmits those words to a device that causes the wheel chair to move. Audeo can currently only recognize about 150 words and phrases, but Ambient Corp. says it will have a model with a full vocabulary by the end of the year.

The aesthetics for this device aren't very good; since, the device is attached to the neck directly below the chin. However, the aim of Audeo is not necessarily for those who would care too much about its aesthetics. Audeo's initial aim is towards people who lost their ability to speak from neurological diseases such as ALS (also called Lou Gehrig's disease) which attacks nerve cells and inhibits voluntary muscle control. These people are not able to control their vocal cords; however, nerve signals which can be traced by Audeo are still sent allowing people with certain diseases to speak.