Tone up your conversation

摘要

Learing a tonal language like Chinese is notoriously difficult -it's easy to end up calling your mother a horse. But soon there could be a wearable headset that can help. The system was created for people with autism who want help with social interactions, but it could be adapted to help with speech or anxiety problems -or even language learning, says LouAnne Boyd at the University of California at Irvine, part of the team that designed it. Called SayWAT, it gives live feedback via Google Glass to the wearer when they are speaking too loudly or in a flat tone - things that can lead to autistic people unintentionally appearing bored or abrasive in conversation.