Quote of the day: Strange, but who foresaw cheek earrings?

In a story about new language translation technology, a computer science professor described the "Muscle Translator" prototype, a device in which electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements naturally made when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. Conceivably, the electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face.

"It sounds unusual, but who would have thought that people would put earrings into their cheeks?" joked Alex Waibel, of Carnegie Mellon University and Germany's University of Karlsruhe. The experiment used eight attachable electrodes, "but with three or four you get almost all of the information," he added. Click here for full story.