Some scientists at the University of East Anglia in England, with aims only for the betterment of humanity, we're sure, have developed lip-reading software that can not only pick up words based on mouth shapes, but can even figure out what language you're speaking -- always a handy thing when understanding speech, we've found. Languages it can identify include English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian, and recognition is based on telltale "articulators" of tongue, jaw and lip movement. The software statistically analyzed the face movements of bilingual and trilingual speakers to draw out the specific defining characteristics, and could by used by the deaf, military and police organizations, or by on-board ship computers that fear for their safety and the integrity of the mission.



[Via CNET]