Researchers at the Tokyo University of Science and the Musashino Red Cross Hospital are developing a robot capable of reproducing oral movements necessary to produce human speech. The prototype robot, an artificial mouth with a tongue made of silicone and a lower jaw driven by artificial muscles, can mimic tongue and lower jaw movements for reproducing Japanese vowel sounds. The movements are controlled by a computer program based on magnetic resonance imaging of oral movements of the human mouth during speech. The team is next working on building lips and a palate necessary for enunciating consonants, with the ultimate goal of developing a robot that can be used for speech therapy and for teaching foreign languages.

Via The Nikkei Weekly (subscription).