Robot reproduces human mouth movements for speech

September 25, 2007 | Source: popgadget

Researchers at the Tokyo University of Science and the Musashino Red Cross Hospital are developing a robot capable of reproducing oral movements necessary to produce human speech, for use in speech therapy and teaching foreign languages.

The prototype robot, an artificial mouth with a tongue made of silicone and a lower jaw driven by artificial muscles, can mimic tongue and lower jaw movements for reproducing Japanese vowel sounds. The movements are controlled by a computer program based on magnetic resonance imaging of oral movements of the human mouth during speech.