Mobile phones might learn to lip read

Is there anything more irritating than being sat next to someone in a train carriage, who is talking loudly into their mobile about their day at work, and how far away they are from the station?

Well, yes, there is. Like being sat next to a man in a complete drunken stupor, who falls asleep on your shoulder and then vomits down your shirt, for example.

But loud phone users are annoying, although if new lip reading technology for mobiles ever sees the light of day, they could become a thing of the past.

Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have been testing a system which literally reads the lips of a user, so they don’t have to make any noise at all – just merely mouth the words.

The system works by monitoring electrical impulses sent from the facial muscles as you form words, and deciphering these signals.

This data is then used to produce synthesized speech on the receiver’s handset. Pretty clever stuff.

Although the current prototype they have running involves having nine electrodes stuck to your face, according to the BBC. That isn’t so convenient, but eventually the tech should fit inside your mobile.

This gadgetry could also be put to other uses aside from stealth phone calls, such as translating from one language into a synthesized version of another.

Who knows, you might even be able to translate what the horrendously drunken man sat in the next-door seat on the train is trying to tell you, before it’s too late for your freshly ironed shirt.