- New research from the University of Kansas uses network science to study lip-reading errors, focusing on visual characteristics (visemes) rather than sounds.
- A visual map of about 20,000 English words revealed that people often confuse words with common look-alikes; about one-third of words resemble at least one other.
- Errors are non-random and more likely when visually similar words are close in the visual network, making some words harder to lip-read.
- Findings suggest lip-reading accuracy is lower than assumed, with mistakes typically being only one or two visemes off.