A wearable artificial graphene throat, abbreviated here as "WAGT," can transform human throat movements into different sounds with training of the wearer. Source: ACS Nano 2019, 10.1021/acsnano.9b03218A wearable artificial graphene throat, abbreviated here as "WAGT," can transform human throat movements into different sounds with training of the wearer. Source: ACS Nano 2019, 10.1021/acsnano.9b03218Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, have devised a wearable artificial throat that can turn throat movement into sound.

Previously, scientists have developed detectors and other technology capable of measuring the movements of human skin, including pulse and heartbeat. Until recently, however, it was not possible to convert those movements into something audible until a team led by researchers He Tian, Yi Yang and Tian-Ling Ren developed a prototype of a device that can do both.

Largely driven by the motions of the mouth and the vocal cord vibrations, speech is a complex process to replicate. He Tian, Yi Yang and Tian-Ling Ren did so by laser-scribing graphene onto a sheet of polyvinyl alcohol film. Measuring 0.6 in by 1.2 in, the wearable device is roughly double the size of a thumbnail. By adding water to the film, the team adhered it to a volunteer’s neck, much like a temporary tattoo, connecting it with electrodes to an armband containing a microcomputer, a circuit board, power amplifier and a decoder.

During trials, the volunteer was tasked with soundlessly imitating the throat motions of speech. The device converted those motions into sound, resulting in words like “no” and “ok.”

The team is hoping that future versions of the device will assist people who do not speak by training them to generate signals using their throat movements that the device can subsequently translate into speech.

The research appears in the journal ACS Nano.

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