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"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Subvocal Input Device | ||
| Attached sensors read nerve signals to determine what the user will say next. |
| She took a subvocal input device from its rack and placed the attached sensors on her throat, jaw, and temples. A faint glitter in the display screens meant the machine was already tracking her eyes, noting by curvature of lens and angle of pupil the exact spot on which she focused at any moment.
She didn't have to speak aloud, only intend to. The subvocal read nerve signals, letting her enter words by just beginning to will them. It was much faster than any normal speech input device... and more cantankerous as well. Jen adjusted the sensitivity level so it wouldn't pick up each tiny tremor - a growing problem as her once athletic body turned wiry and inexact with age. Still, she vowed to hold onto this rare skill as long as possible. |
| From Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
The author adds
Compare to the implanted transceiver from Frank Herbert's 1972 novel The Godmakers.
Here are a couple of science fiction writers who have, indeed, written about a direct interface (John Varley, 1984) and a communications implant (Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, 1981). As it turns out, there are ways that a direct connection can be made between the brain and a device - see the Thinking Man's Wheelchair.
As I recall, Clint Eastwood used a similar 'device' in Firefox, a fairly cool 1982 movie about a technologically advanced jet fighter. To activate its missile system, you had to think the commands - in Russian, no less. Fortunately, Eastwood's character was up to the challenge.
Sometimes, under a talented operator, a subvocal could seem almost magical, like those "direct" brain-to-brain computer links science fiction writers were always jabbering about, but which, for simple neurological reasons, had never become real.
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Tech news articles related to Earth
Tech news articles related to works by David Brin
Subvocal Input Device-related
news articles:
- Audeo Neckband Voiceless Phone Calls
- NASA's Subvocal Speech System
- MIT Headset Lets You Communicate Without Speaking
| MIT Headset Lets You Communicate Without Speaking |
| Tongue Mouse Created By Valve Engineer |
| Skinput Uses Your Skin As An Input Device |
| AcceleGlove Open-Source Data Glove |
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'... the lens displays would be useless without a wearable computer to do the graphics.'
'the registration number which the traffic control automatically photographed as she left the controlway...'
'It could maintain a steady six miles per hour...'
'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'...without burning a single hydrocarbon molecule to injure the diseased atmosphere any further.'
'Bird-like robots now descended from the ceiling of the theatre...'
'The efficient robot waiter of the Sky Club had cleared away the remnants of an epicurean meal.'
'...in the tank the new body and the new mind and memory and life has taken almost instant form.'
