Moore's law has driven silicon chip circuitry to the point where we are surrounded by devices equipped with microprocessors. The devices are frequently wonderful; communicating with them – not so much. Pressing buttons on smart devices or keyboards is often clumsy and never the method of choice when effective voice communication is possible. The keyword in the previous sentence is "effective". Technology has advanced to the point where we are in the early stages of being able to communicate with our devices using voice recognition.

They can still have trouble understanding simple commands to play music or look up directions, though, especially in noisy places. Rather than focusing on cleaning up the audio signal that captures your voice, Israeli startup VocalZoom thinks it might be possible to make all kinds of speech-recognition applications work a lot better by using a tiny, low-power laser that measures the itty-bitty vibrations of your skin when you speak. The company, which has raised about 12.5 million in venture funding thus far, is building a sensor with a small laser that it says will initially be built into headsets and helmets; there, it will be used alongside existing speech-recognition technologies that rely on microphones in order to reduce overall misunderstandings. VocalZoom founder and CEO Tal Bakish thinks it will first be used for things like motorcycle helmets or headsets worn by warehouse workers--you might use it to ask for directions while riding your Harley, for instance. A Chinese speech-recognition company called iFlytek plans to have a prototype headset ready at the end of August.