Folks who are unfortunate enough to have their larynx removed because of vocal chord problems have had to replace their normal speaking voice with the robotic-sounding voice of a mechanical larynx. Now, South African scientists have developed an artificial larynx that approximates the human voice.
By using 118 pressure sensors to monitor mouth and tongue movement, the palatometer uses a speech synthesizer to produce the correct words in a more natural voice. There’s still a 0.3-second delay between you making the motions and the words coming out, but they’re hoping to iron such kinks out before they’re given to people to use.
