Watch what you say. Scientists in England have developed a computer that can not only read lips, but can tell the difference between languages.
Mouth movements can differ according to the language spoken.
(Credit: University of East Anglia)Researchers at the University of East Anglia's School of Computing Sciences developed the technology by statistically modeling the lip motions of 23 bilingual and trilingual speakers. The resulting system is able to identify the language spoken by an individual with "very high accuracy," according to the university. Identifiable languages included English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian.
What gives you away? The movement of your articulators--when you wag your tongue, jaw, and lips, you are generating the measurable characteristics of visual speech, the recognition of which is known as lip reading. Computer vision has already been used in lip reading, or "feature extraction," but this is the first time computers have been "taught" to recognize different languages, according to UEA (PDF).
"This is an exciting advance in automatic lip-reading technology and the first scientific confirmation of something we already intuitively suspected--that when people speak different languages, they use different mouth shapes in different sequences," said Professor Stephen Cox, who led the research along with Jake Newman. "For example, we found frequent 'lip rounding' among French speakers, and more prominent tongue movements among Arabic speakers."
The discovery could have practical uses for the deaf, law enforcement, and military units serving overseas, the researchers predict. With a little fine tuning it may also help you figure out what language your teenager speaks.
This time of year there's no shortage of lists, everywhere you turn you're hammered with Top Ten and Best of 2008 harangues.
Me, I'm not going to waste your time raving about Portishead, TV on the Radio or Vampire Weekend's CDs. Why bother? I'd rather turn you onto great music that slipped between the cracks.
My favorite album of the year was JD Souther's "If The World Was You." JD was most famous for co-writing a bunch of 1970s era Eagles tunes, but this new CD demonstrates the Detroit-born, Amarillo, Texas-raised musician hasn't dried up in the intervening decades.
The new CD, recorded live in a Nashville studio, has a dark, brooding sound. JD's accompanying musicians are serious players. But it's the writing that kept this disc in heavy rotation in my house. There's a bit of the late, great Warren Zevon influence in there, so if you're a fan of 1970s Southern California rock If the World Was You would definitely be worth a listen. It's at least as good as Randy Newman's excellent "Harps and Angels" CD that was also released this year.
A friend turned me onto Lizz Wright's "The Orchard" CD and I couldn't get over her straight from the heart vocals. This woman can sing, this kind of depth of feeling is rare nowadays, but Wright comes from a different tradition.
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(Credit:
Engadget)
Where some companies try to re-invent the wheel, others simply find ways to go back to low-tech solutions--very low tech. Case in point: The "Cool Man" MP3 player from Chinese manufacturer Newman fastens to your personage with a safety pin. That's right, the kind of thing used for diapers before Pampers.
Now that's an unusually retro idea, to put it mildly, when others are going out of their way to find alternative solutions to crossing apparel with mobile entertainment. To be fair, it should be noted that the Cool Man does have more modern features, such as an OLED display, a built-in microphone, and, judging by the photo from Engadget, some water-resistant properties. But as others have noted, Newman missed an opportunity to market these as MP3 buttons for the presidential campaign.
(Credit:
Mobile Magazine)
Never having been adept at deciphering optical illusions, we first thought the concept of Valentine's Day got lost in the translation of this Chinese-made gadget (as in, a broken heart). Once our myopia cleared up, we saw that there are two interlocking faces that can be snapped apart, freeing a pair of his-and-her MP3 players.
Although it's supposedly being released just in time for the holiday, Mobile Magazine says this music player from Beijing-based Newman will be available only in China for now. There's also no information on specs or capacity, but we thought it was worth mentioning if only to show that one must go overseas to find some original marketing for Valentine gifts. Unless you're talking about love lasers.
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