Silent speaking, it sounds like such a contradiction, but with the new German invention it has become possible.. They have developed a telephone through which you can communicate without talking.
This new kind of telephone registers the muscle movement of your lips and transfers these movements into an electronic voice. The invention also includes the possibility of automatically translating your text ‘spoken’ in Dutch to the language of the other person.
Of course there are a lot positive arguments concerning the usability of this invention. You can communicate with everyone no matter what language they speak, nobody will hear what kind of secrets you are telling, you can make phone calls during a concert without the background noise, and; very important; it will be possible for us students to make phone calls during college with nobody noticing it.
Despite these advantages, I still think it is a weird idea that future phone calls might be so different. A big part of the personal aspect will be left out when all you hear is an electronic voice. Because of this, intonation also misses, which may lead to miscommunication. Somebody might have meant something sarcastic but due to a lack of personal content there is a great possibility that it will be interpreted wrong.
Furthermore, I also wonder what kind of electronic voice this will be. Will you get the opportunity of choosing what voice represents you, just like you have those options with TomTom? Can you choose to be sensual Sheila or farmer Fred? And what will laughter sound like? .. I think I will just stick with my old fashioned phone and speak with my own voice ;-)
