Original story

Virtually Human - 21.4.2012

Is that a phone, or a mouth-organ?

*Soundless cellphone employs neural net computer - reduces aural pollution levels but problems linger; EU Bridge Tournament scandal of silent messaging.

The staggering popularity of the new generation of soundless cellular phones has left even hardened telecoms experts literally open-mouthed. Mobile phone manufacturers are struggling to keep abreast of orders, and delivery times are now in the order of several weeks. Telecoms operators, too, are in difficulties as the volume of phone traffic has increased way beyond predicted levels.

The largest equipment suppliers and service providers are currently meeting in Genova, Italy to attempt to find solutions to the situation. The gathering has taken on the nature of a crisis conference.

The soundless cellphone is one in which the conventional carbon diaphragm microphone is replaced by a sensor that recognizes the user’s sounds from neural impulses from the vocal chords. The transmitter end of the device does also have a microphone, but this is used only when “fingerprinting” the telephone’s neural network computer to function correctly. Thereafter, the microphone is generally unnecessary. Once the telephone has been trained to respond to the user, speaking can be performed “mouth closed” and silently. Dialling also takes place in the same way, with soundless speech. Reception is via a small cordless earpiece worn inside the ear.

MUC Electronics of Fort Worth, TX originally designed the cellphone as an aid for those with speech impediments. It proved also to be a handy tool for use in noisy environments, for example on factory floors. MUC Sales Vice President Loudon Clere admitted to being somewhat shocked to discover a few months after the product’s launch that the vast majority of buyers were normal office workers.

Many enthusiastic users have compared the new phone to a kind of telepathic thought-transfer. “It’s quite extraordinary. I can talk to my colleagues in the middle of a business negotiation, or chat to my wife during an after-dinner speech if I want”, said Panasonic marketing executive Cy Lensis-Goulden. “Subsequent versions will almost certainly feature a vidcam, and then for example an interpreter can translate simultaneously - and soundlessly - the speech of a caller shown on the phone’s display while he or she stands next to the user”.

The new phones have reduced the aural pollution levels in many settings. For example tiresome noise levels at airport terminals or on the NYSE floor have been cut by as much as a half. A SatWeb reporter providing live commentary on the recent White House Inaugural Ball even claimed that the background chatter at social events and cocktail parties was greatly reduced.

As we have seen so often with new advances, the soundless telephone has already been subjected to widespread abuse. Students taking examinations, for example, are now required to undergo body-searches, as certain candidates at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Witwatersrand have tried to use the soundless cellphone for cheating. A similar case of collusion occurred between playing partners at the latest EU Bridge Tournament, resulting in the disqualification of the entire Portuguese team.

The gathering of equipment manufacturers and operators will probably be concentrating on another issue, however, that of the problems arising out of overloaded networks. One new phenomenon is that the majority of users carry on at least 50% of their phone conversations with people less than 100 metres away. The opening session already proposed a solution according to which short-range conversations of this type would be directed on a set-to-set basis, thereby not loading the network except during the initial connection procedure. This will nevertheless require changes in the equipment standards, and it could present difficulties with the arrangement of billing. At this stage, the delegates in Genova have not even made a start on the vexed question of agreeing to a standard for short-range silent telephony.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
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Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui prototyyppeinä oikeassa aikaikkunassa, mutta käyttö jäi kapeaksi.