One UC Davis Health patient has been diagnosed with ALS, a neurological disease that makes it impossible to speak out loud. Scientists have now directly wired his brain into a computer, allowing him to speak through it using only his thoughts.
The technology involves surgically implanting small electrodes. Artificial intelligence can then translate the neural activity into words.
"Within 30 minutes, he was able to use this system to speak with a restricted vocabulary," Wairagkar said.
"[The patient] has said that the voice that is synthesized with the system sounds like his own voice and that makes him happy," Wairagkar said.
"These are just very simple melodies that we designed to see whether the system can capture his intention to change the pitch," Wairagkar said. Previously, ALS patients would use muscle or eye movements to type on a computer and generate a synthesized voice. That's how physicist Stephen Hawking, who also had ALS, was able to slowly speak.
"There are millions of people around the world who live with speech disabilities," Wairagkar said.
The UC Davis scientific study was just published in the journal "Nature," and researchers are looking for other volunteers to participate in the program.
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