Did She say “I Love You” or “Olive Juice”?
Lip Reading is sometimes considered an art form although it has not been as accurate as hoped.
We have all been through different noisy situations where we had to attempt this procedure one way or the other. Sometimes we read our partner or friends’ lips correctly, and at other times we completely misunderstand, only to make a fool out of ourselves.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia of the UK have began a study which has been funded to attempt and create an actual procedure to accurately provide lip reading.
Part of the development would be to study numerous photographs and videos, provided at a number of different angles, so to be able and see what poses and lip movements correspond to what text. The vision is to build the efficient software and application that would dictate the lip reading straight into text and be provided on electronic devices such as: cellphones and even vehicle dashboards.
Besides the obvious assistance this could provide to the hearing impaired, there are plans of this being used to fight crime. Instead of having a human being sit and watch a suspected felon for hours in an attempt to translate their lip movements into text, a computer (or another electronic gadget) would look and do so automatically.
A working prototype for this lip reading computer is expected to be available within two years.
As much as this seems like a great idea against crime and for the hearing impaired, do you believe this could also be an invasion of privacy? If such an application would be available for all on their cellphones, they may be able to know what you are saying when you are not even talking to them – No More Secrets…hmmm?
