The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Lip-reading artificial intelligence could help police fight crime 24 March 2016 • 5:59pm 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.
 "If the police were investigating a crime and they had video evidence but the audio wasn't available, they could lip-read using this technology," said Dr Bear.
 The researchers taught a computer program to recognise visual communication cues, including the letters "P" and "B", which to humans look so similar they are almost indistinguishable.
 Using machine learning, the computer scientists trained the program to recognise the difference between sounds, first with visual and audio clues, then with just the visual.
 "It is learning to tell the really subtle distinctions between the different sounds," said Dr Bear.
 "It's used new knowledge we've gleaned from previous research.
" AI timeline Other uses of the technology could include live analysis during sports games and mobile phone apps that can understand human speech without audio cues.
 The machine recognises 5 per cent more words than any previous lip-reading technologies, but it needs to be refined further before it's rolled out in police departments across the country.
 "I want to do more research.
 We’ve still got more ideas for how we can improve the research further," said Dr Bear.
 Dr Richard Harvey, another researcher who worked on the technology, said: "Lip-reading is one of the most challenging problems in artificial intelligence so it’s great to make progress on one of the trickier aspects, which is how to train machines to recognise the appearance and shape of human lips.
" Most embarassing hacks of all time For a round-up of technology news and analysis, sign up to our weekly Tech Briefing here.
 READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Technology latest 06 Jan 2018, 2:35pm Bitcoin futures investors set to suffer losses as cryptocurrency fever fades Premium 06 Jan 2018, 2:28pm How can I buy bitcoin in the UK?
 Premium 06 Jan 2018, 2:28pm Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple and Litecoin: Here are Bitcoin's four closest rivals Premium 06 Jan 2018, 2:28pm What is cryptocurrency, how does it work and why do we use it?
 Premium 06 Jan 2018, 1:26pm CES 2018: Time for the world's biggest tech show to get its mojo back Premium Comment: Why can YouTubers get away with posting controversial content?
 06 Jan 2018, 10:02am Comment: Logan Paul's disastrous YouTube video is just a symptom of very modern problem Chris Stokel-Walker Premium 06 Jan 2018, 9:13am What is ethereum and how does it differ from Bitcoin?
 Premium 06 Jan 2018, 8:18am From driverless cars to the Samsung Galaxy S9: What we can expect from CES 2018 05 Jan 2018, 9:07pm Comment: 2018 should see the start of a new era for banking Simon Lewis Premium 05 Jan 2018, 7:27pm Comment: All the passwords in the world will not protect our data now James Titcomb Premium James Titcomb Meltdown and Spectre: should we be afraid?
 05 Jan 2018, 6:41pm Meet the man who helped discover the microchip flaw leaving millions vulnerable to hackers concern 05 Jan 2018, 6:19pm Comment: Want to know why children are addicted to social media?
 Blame their like-obsessed parents Cristina Odone Premium 05 Jan 2018, 5:44pm Police force guilty of misdirection by claiming satnavs must be in bottom right corner of a windscreen 05 Jan 2018, 3:46pm Uber's Travis Kalanick to net £1bn from selling 29pc of Uber stake 05 Jan 2018, 2:28pm Visa locks down Bitcoin payment cards in crackdown on card issuer Meltdown and Spectre: should we be afraid?
 05 Jan 2018, 1:33pm All iPhones, iPads and Mac computers are affected by microchip flaw that leaves devices vulnerable to hackers, Apple says 05 Jan 2018, 11:59am 'Cuddle puddles' and branded MDMA: inside Silicon Valley's secret sex parties Premium 05 Jan 2018, 11:34am How Mark Zuckerberg can fix Facebook in 2018 04 Jan 2018, 7:43pm Comment: I’m still bullish on equities, and this is why.
.
.
 Garry White Premium 04 Jan 2018, 6:16pm 'The world feels anxious and divided': Mark Zuckerberg vows to fix Facebook in new year's message 04 Jan 2018, 4:51pm Ripple passes £100 billion to close in on Bitcoin as largest cryptocurrency Premium Please support us by disabling your adblocker We've noticed you're adblocking.
 We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.
 We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.
 Thank you for your support.
 Need help?
 Click here for instructions