Crime Fighting Potential for Computerized Lip-Reading
University of East Anglia researchers will begin a project this month that seeks to create a program that can read lips, possibly for use in law enforcement. Although nearly everyone has some ability to read lips, little is known as to the amount of visual information that is needed for the process.
The Surrey University Center for Vision, Speech, and Signal Processing has created accurate face and lip trackers, and will collaborate on the project; so will the Home Office Scientific Development Branch, which plans to use the technology for fighting crime.
“To be effective, the systems must accurately track the head over a variety of poses, extract numbers, or features, that describe the lips and then learn what features correspond to what text,” explains UEA project leader Dr. Richard Harvey.
After collecting data for lip-reading, the goal will be to create a system that can turn video of lip motion into text.
“This project will also investigate how to use the extensive information known about audio speech to recognize visual speech,” says Richards.
The number of trained lip readers is currently decreasing as the use of sign language is increasing.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from the University of East Anglia , Norwich, United Kingdom (02/21/07).