Source: singularityhub.com Author: Aaron Saenz You may have a family member or friend who had throat cancer. Maybe you’ve seen a TV show where a heavy smoker needs an artificial larynx pressed to their neck to speak. Either way, you know the voice that they have to use: robotic, monotone, raspy. It works, but it can leave users unable to express themselves well. Researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa have developed a new system that measures mouth movement to produce a more “human-like” voice. Their work was on display at the recent International Conference on Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering. By placing a device called a palatometer under the tongue, users can try to speak as normal and have their words synthesized on a speaker. The South African artificial larynx can provide inflection, ending the dreaded monotone and providing the means to indicate you are asking a question. With proper calibration, researchers claim greater than 94% accuracy. That’s good news to those who want to regain a normal speaking voice. The palatometer, which measures tongue/mouth movements with 118+ pressure sensors, is an older device developed at BYU and produced by Complete Speech. It is most often used by speech therapists in instructing their patients and retails for around $200-$300. You can see a brief presentation of the palatometer after the break. University of Witwatersrand’s innovation comes in developing a selective way of using the mouth movement data to generate toned speech. After cataloging tongue motions, and using predictive-analysis, [...]