New lip-reading technology could help solve crimes by deciphering what people caught on CCTV are saying, researchers have claimed. The visual speech recognition technology developed by the University of East Anglia in Norwich can be used to determine what people are saying in situations where audio is not good enough to hear - such as on security camera footage. Helen Bear, from the university's school of computing science, said the technology could be applied to a wide range of situations from criminal investigations to entertainment. She added: "Lip-reading has been used to pinpoint words footballers have shouted in heated moments on the pitch, but is likely to be of most practical use in situations where there are high levels of noise, such as in cars or aircraft cockpits. "Crucially, whilst there are still improvements to be made, such a system could be adapted for use for a range of purposes - for example, for people with hearing or speech impairments."

If the lip-reading technology had been used during the 2006 World Cup Final, when Zinedine Zidane was given a red card for headbutting Marco Materazzi, the outcome of the game could have been different. Closer analysis of the event revealed that Zidane responded to Materazzi insulting his family. "If we'd had live lip-reading technology they probably would have both been red carded," said Dr Helen Bear, a researcher at the University of East Anglia in Norwich who has developed a lip-reading artificial intelligence program. The new technology can lip-read better than humans could help solve crimes by analysing speech in CCTV footage. The visual speech recognition technology can decipher human conversation in videos when there isn't clear audio available, as is often the case with surveillance footage.

New lip-reading technology could help solve crimes by deciphering what people caught on CCTV are saying, researchers have claimed. The visual speech recognition technology developed by the University of East Anglia in Norwich can be used to determine what people are saying in situations where audio is not good enough to hear - such as on security camera footage. Helen Bear, from the university's school of computing science, said the technology could be applied to a wide range of situations from criminal investigations to entertainment. She added: "Lip-reading has been used to pinpoint words footballers have shouted in heated moments on the pitch, but is likely to be of most practical use in situations where there are high levels of noise, such as in cars or aircraft cockpits. "Crucially, whilst there are still improvements to be made, such a system could be adapted for use for a range of purposes - for example, for people with hearing or speech impairments."

New lip-reading technology could help solve crimes by deciphering what people caught on CCTV are saying, researchers have claimed. The visual speech recognition technology developed by the University of East Anglia in Norwich can be used to determine what people are saying in situations where audio is not good enough to hear - such as on security camera footage. Helen Bear, from the university's school of computing science, said the technology could be applied to a wide range of situations from criminal investigations to entertainment. She added: "Lip-reading has been used to pinpoint words footballers have shouted in heated moments on the pitch, but is likely to be of most practical use in situations where there are high levels of noise, such as in cars or aircraft cockpits. "Crucially, whilst there are still improvements to be made, such a system could be adapted for use for a range of purposes - for example, for people with hearing or speech impairments."