Scientists are pioneering technology that could allow people to hold silent phone conversations. Professor Tanja Shultz of Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is one such scientist. The idea came to light when Shultz was sat on a train next to a person incessantly talking on their mobile phone – a scenario that everyone is familiar with nowadays.

The new technology cleverly measures the electrical pulses created when our muscles move in order to speak, creating a Morse code of pulses. By transmitting these and turning them into text, users can hold silent phone conversations. Ingenious – and yet, it’d be so much easier to send a text message.