"Unvoiced speech recognition using EMG - mime speech recognition"

We propose unvoiced speech recognition, "Mime Speech Recognition". It recognizes speech by observing the muscles associated with speech. It is not based on voice signals but electromyography (EMG). It will realize unvoiced communication, which is a new communication style. Because voice signals are not used, it can be applied in noisy environments; it also supports people without vocal-cords and aphasics. In preliminary experiments, we try to recognize the 5 Japanese vowels. EMG signals from the 3 muscles that contribute greatly to the utterance of Japanese vowels are input to a neural network. The recognition accuracy is over 90% for the three subjects tested.