WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF: As computing becomes ubiquitous, and embedded in the devices around us, we won’t always want to talk out loud to use them, that’s one of the many use cases for this technology.

MIT researchers have developed a new form of computer interface called AlterEgo that lets users silently converse with a computing devices and that can transcribe words that the user verbalises internally but doesn’t actually speak aloud.

The system consists of a wearable technology device and an associated computing system. Electrodes in the device pick up neuromuscular signals in the users jaw and face that are triggered by internal verbalisations, in other words in the same way you say words just “in your head,” but that are undetectable to the human eye. Those signals are then fed to a machine learning system that has been trained to correlate particular signals with particular words which then lets the user “silently” converse and interact with, for example, Google as the clip below shows.

The device also includes a pair of bone conduction headphones, like ones I’ve mentioned before that can even turn rings into phones, which transmit vibrations through the bones of the face to the inner ear. Because they don’t obstruct the ear canal, the headphones enable the system to convey information to the user without interrupting conversation or otherwise interfering with the user’s auditory experience.