Mute People May Be Able to Speak in Near Future

     Most people consider speaking a piece of cake, though, it’s not that easy. Movements of the mouth together with the vibrations from vocal cords create human voice and enable us to speak. Being mute could be either an innate trait or caused by injuries on vocal cords. Reported by researchers; a wearable artificial throat has been developed by ACS Nano. The device can be attached to the neck just like a sticker, and creates sounds from movements of the throat.

     Specialized detectors, developed by scientists, are measuring movements on human skin, for example pulse and heartbeat. Yet, these measurements cannot be converted into human voice. Previous design of the artificial throat was developed with both of these abilities by He Tian Yang, Tian-Ling Ren, and their co-workers. But, the device wasn’t a perfect fit for long periods since it needed to feel taped on the skin. After the latest design failed to be comfortable enough for people in need, experts initialized the process for a newer, thinner and more suitable artificial throat in order to adhere the neck like a tattoo.

     Graphene on a thin sheet of polyvinyl alcohol film was scribed with laser in order to make artificial throat. The rectangular-shaped product is sized 1.52*3.04cm which almost doubles the thumb-nail of a person, in size. The first prototype was tested on a volunteer. The device succeeded to emit simple words with sound , as the volunteer noiselessly imitated the motions of a throat. Researchers think mute people will have voice thanks to the device that translates their throat movements into speech, in near future.

            Funding from from the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Basic Research Program of China, the Beijing Innovation Center for Future Chip, the Beijing Natural Science Foundation and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program was confirmed by authors.