SILENT SOUND TECHNOLOGY

Presented by
SYED.IMRAN BASHA
Y9MTSP405
 What it is..?
It is a technology that helps you to transmit information
without using your vocal cords.
This technology aims to notice lip movements &
transform them into a computer generated sound that can
be transmitted over a phone.
Hence person on other end of phone receives the
information in audio.
 ORIGINATION
Humans are capable of producing and understanding whispered
speech in quiet environments at remarkably low signal levels. Most
people can also understand a few unspoken words by lip-reading

The idea of interpreting silent speech electronically or with a

computer has been around for a long time, and was popularized in
the 1968 Stanley Kubrick science-fiction film 2001 A Space
Odyssey

A major focal point was the DARPA Advanced Speech Encoding

Program (ASE) of the early 2000s, which funded research on low
bit rate speech synthesis with acceptable intelligibility, quality, and
aural speaker recognizability in acoustically harsh environments,
 Recent events
This year at Cebit, one of the largest trade fair, a new
concept called SILENT SOUND TECHNOLOGY
was demonstrated.
This technology is being developed by scientists of
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( KIT ), Germany.
 hOW WE sPEaK.?

When we generally speak, air passes through larynx

& the tongue. Words are produced using articulator
muscle in the mouth & jaw region.
Speaker produces the speech signal in the form of
pressure waves.
 Now imagine a technology that could allow everyone to make
phone calls, and talk, without making a sound Serene,
peaceful & heavenly.

Recently, its proved that the articulator muscle become active

irrespective of whether air passes through them or not.

Even by saying words without producing sound, weak electric

currents are sent from your brain to the speech muscle.

These electrical signals are known as

ELECTROMYOGRAMS.
 ELECTROMYOGRAPHY
It is a technique which monitors tiny muscular movements
and pulses generated by it . The transducers involved converts
the pulses into electric signals .
 Electromyographic sensors attached to the face
records the electric signals produced by the facial
muscles, compare them with pre recorded signal
pattern of spoken words .
 When there is a match that sound is transmitted on to
the other end of the line and person at the other end
listen to the spoken words.
 Surface electromyography
(sEMG) based speech recognition

Surface Electromyography (SEMG) is the process of

recording electrical muscle activity captured by surface (i.e., non-
implanted) electrodes. When a muscle fiber is activated by the
central nervous system, small electrical currents in the form of
ion flows are generated. These electrical currents move through
the body tissue, whose resistance creates potential differences
which can be measured between different regions on the body
surface.
SILENT SPEECH INTERFACES
In interfacing we use four different kinds of transducers, they
are,

Vibration sensors

Pressure sensor

Electromagnetic sensor

Motion sensor
 APPLICATION
As we know in space there is no medium for sound to
travel therefore this technology can be best utilized
by astronauts.
We can make silent calls even if we are standing in a
crowded place.
This technology is helpful for people without vocal
cord or those who are suffering from Aphasia
(speaking disorder ).
This technology can be used for communication in
nasty environment.
 To tell a secret PIN no. , or credit card no. on the
phone now be easy as there is no one eavesdrop
anymore.
Since the electrical signals are universal they can be
translated into any language. Native speakers can
translate it before sending it to the other side. Hence
it can be converted into any language of choice
currently being German, English & French.
 RESTRICTIONS
Translation into majority of languages but for
languages such as Chinese different tone holds different
meaning, facial movements being the same. Hence this
technology is difficult to apply in such situations.
From security point of view recognizing who you are
talking to gets complicated.
Even differentiating between people and emotions
cannot be done. This means you will always feel you
are talking to a robot.
This device presently needs nine leads to be attached to
our face which is quite impractical to make it usable.
 FUTURE PROSPECTS
Silent sound technology gives way to a bright future to
speech recognition technology from simple voice
commands to memorandum dictated over the phone all
this is fairly possible in noisy public places.
Without having electrodes hanging all around your
face, these electrodes will be incorporated into
cellphones .
It may have features like lip reading based on image
recognition & processing rather than electromyography.
Nano technology will be a mentionable step towards
making the device handy.
 CONCLUSION
Engineers claim that the device is working with 99
percent efficiency.
It is difficult to compare SSI technologies directly in
a meaningful way. Since many of the systems are still
preliminary, it would not make sense, for example, to
compare speech recognition scores or synthesis
quality at this stage.
With a few abstractions, however, it is possible to
shed light on the range of applicability and the
potential for future commercialization of the different
methods.
THANK YOU