Reports last week that NASA engineers have invented a mind-reading device were exaggerated. But they are developing a system that, by monitoring the electrical signals sent to the speech muscles, can work out what people are saying - even if they do not speak out loud. At the moment the system can recognise only a handful of words. But if it can ever get close to recognising normal language, it could provide an alternative to throat microphones for people working in places where speech can be difficult, including workers in noisy factories, pilots, divers and astronauts. It might even allow people to carry on conversations in silence or restore speech to people with a damaged vocal system.
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