Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making noise

Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by sourpanda on Monday November 02, 2026 @12:59PM (#50340809)

I think this is incredibly cool and straight out of a sci-fi novel! I think this is phenomenal for accessibility and for hands-free computing in general. I also agree with other comments that the website should have more detail on how it works, such as what you included in the post body. Amazing work guys!

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by themanmaran on Monday November 02, 2026 @01:12PM (#50341020)

Yea in one of the further Ender's Game novels they talk about this tech a lot for characters silently mumbling to the AI.

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by spiderice on Monday November 02, 2026 @02:34PM (#50342390)

CMD+F Ender

That's exactly where my mind went. Something I've wanted ever since I read that book a couple decades ago.

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by viraptor on Monday November 02, 2026 @05:11PM (#50344632)

If I remember the details correctly, the AI-like entity optimised the communication to subvocal, but his wife felt disconnected, noticed him turned away in bed whispering to the AI.

There's some lesson there...

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by Infiniti20 on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:57PM (#50346046)

Which of the books is this? I only ever read the first

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by viraptor on Monday November 02, 2026 @07:43PM (#50346430)

It's from Xenocide. It was between Ender and Novinha.

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by throwaway27448 on Monday November 02, 2026 @08:06PM (#50346647)

[delayed]

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by joshgachnang on Monday November 02, 2026 @01:36PM (#50341414)

Ahhhh exactly! I've wanted this since I was a kid and read those books.

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by flanbiscuit on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:24PM (#50345609)

I had forgotten about that!

My first thoughts was Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

You can read the whole thing for free on his website: https://craphound.com/down/Cory_Doctorow_-_Down_and_Out_in_t...

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by garrettgarcia on Monday November 02, 2026 @06:33PM (#50345747)

I've been wanting to have a subvocal interface to a voice assistant ever since reading about Ender talking to the AI Jane as a kid. After Alexa came out, I encouraged my employer to develop the technology, but they didn't. I'm so happy to see people are working on this finally! Scott Card was a prophet.

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by ElijahLynn on Monday November 02, 2026 @01:41PM (#50341497)

I second that. I've been talking and talking to my phone and AI even more and more since it keeps getting better and is generally pretty accurate these days. And there are times when I end up typing because of environmental reasons.

This is just really groundbreaking and I know the research has been out there for a little while but to actually implement is a whole nother ball game.

I think the use cases for this will expand as the product ships and gets out there!

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by _jholland on Monday November 02, 2026 @01:45PM (#50341556)

Agree, incredibly cool, and I could definitely see myself using one, but it does give off slightly dystopian vibes, making me think of the speakwrite in 1984:

"In the long, windowless hall, with its double row of cubicles and its endless rustle of papers and hum of voices murmuring into speakwrites, there were quite a dozen people whom Winston did not even know by name"

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Re:Show HN: Subvocal – Talk to your computer without making ... by wiml on Tuesday November 03, 2026 @01:36AM (#50348792)

Subvocal interfaces have been a staple of SF since probably the 1960s, but what this really reminds me of is the "ensemble coding" used by kids in the book Rainbows End.

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