Researchers at Cornell University have developed sonar glasses that have the ability to track facial movements for silent communication. The eyeglass attachment, created by Ph.D. student Ruidong Zhang, uses tiny microphones and speakers to read the words that a user mouths silently, allowing them to command actions such as pausing or skipping a music track, entering a passcode on their phone, or working on CAD models without a keyboard.
The system builds on a previous project by the team that used wireless earbuds and eliminates the need for a camera or an earpiece, making it more practical and feasible for everyday use. “Most technology in silent-speech recognition is limited to a select set of predetermined commands and requires the user to face or wear a camera, which is neither practical nor feasible,” explained Cheng Zhang, Cornell assistant professor of information science. “We’re moving sonar onto the body.”
