Topic description and stories

Speech bubble

AI reduces ‘communication gap’ for nonverbal people by as much as half

15 Jun 2020

Researchers have used artificial intelligence to reduce the ‘communication gap’ for nonverbal people with motor disabilities who rely on computers to...

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Joseph Priestley: theologian, scientist, clergyman and stammerer

Study unearths Britain’s first speech therapists

22 Oct 2018

On International Stammering Awareness Day (22 October), a new study reveals that Britain’s first speech therapists emerged at least a century earlier...

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Time travelling to the mother tongue

19 Jul 2016

T
he sounds of languages that died thousands of years ago have been brought to life again through technology that uses statistics in a revolutionary...

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Areas highlighted in red on the right and left brain hemispheres show the frontal and temporal brain networks involved in the processing of linguistic information in intonation

Tuning into the melody of speech

15 Oct 2013

In a groundbreaking new study, Cambridge researchers have mapped out the neurobiological basis of a key aspect of human communication: intonation.

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The virtual talking head, “Zoe”, uses a basic set of six simulated emotions which can then be adjusted and combined.

Face of the future rears its head

19 Mar 2013

Meet Zoe: a digital talking head which can express human emotions on demand with “unprecedented realism” and could herald a new era of human-computer...

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Launch event

Cambridge Language Sciences launched

15 May 2012

The University launched its new Strategic Initiative in Language Sciences at a special one-day conference at Newnham College on 12 May, attended by...

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Oscillogram

Call of the wired

27 Apr 2012

For generations, we have dreamed of machines with artificial intelligence with which we can have real conversations but, despite amazing...

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Functional neuroimaging of the human brain

The communicative brain

29 Nov 2011

What is it about the human brain that makes language possible? Two evolutionary systems working together, say neuroscientists Professor William...

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Music in action

Music – or language in action?

24 Nov 2011

Music is more than just sound. Sharing many features with language, it has all the hallmarks of a communicative system, as Cambridge researchers are...

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Sounds recognised from an audio recording

Smart listeners and smooth talkers

16 Nov 2011

Human-like performance in speech technology could be just around the corner, thanks to a new research project that links three UK universities.

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The Politics of Speechmaking at the Festival of Ideas

The politics of speechmaking

24 Oct 2011

Modern politicians are too stuck in a 24/7 media bubble to make the kind of grand speeches associated with past leaders, a debate on political...

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Standing ovation

What makes a great political speech?

27 Sep 2011

Cambridge Festival of Ideas debate to examine the changing nature of political speeches.

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