It’s a step towards a system that would let people send texts straight from their brains.
You don’t have to
think about it: when you speak, your brain sends signals to your lips,
tongue, jaw, and larynx, which work together to produce the intended
sounds.
Now
scientists in San Francisco say they’ve tapped these brain signals to
create a device capable of spitting out complete phrases, like “Don’t do
Charlie’s dirty dishes” and “Critical equipment needs proper
maintenance.”
The
research is a step toward a system that would be able to help severely
paralyzed people speak—and, maybe one day, consumer gadgets that let
anyone send a text straight from the brain.
A
team led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang at the University of California,
San Francisco, recorded from the brains of five people with epilepsy,
who were already undergoing brain surgery, as they spoke from a list of
100 phrases.
When
Chang’s team subsequently fed the signals to a computer model of the
human vocal system, it generated synthesized speech that was about half
intelligible.
The effort doesn’t pick up on abstract
thought, but instead listens for nerves firing as they tell your vocal
organs to move. Previously, researchers have used such motor signals
from other parts of the brain to control robotic arms.
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