A brain-computer interface translates the study participant’s brain signals into the speech and facial movements of an animated avatar. Credit: Noah Berger
Brain-reading implants enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled two people with paralysis to communicate with unprecedented accuracy and speed.
In separate studies, both published on 23 August in Nature, two teams of researchers describe brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) that translate neural signals into text or words spoken by a synthetic voice. The BCIs can decode speech at 62 words per minute and 78 words per minute, respectively.
Natural conversation happens at around 160 words per minute, but the new technologies are both faster than any previous attempts.
“It is now possible to imagine a future where we can restore fluid conversation to someone with paralysis, enabling them to freely say whatever they want to say with an accuracy high enough to be understood reliably,” said Francis Willett, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California who co-authored one of the papers, in a press conference on 22 August. READ MORE...
