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Electrode Implant Gives Mute Man a (Synthesized) Voice

Posted by timothy on from the paradoxically-enough dept.

Iddo Genuth writes with an excerpt from The Future of Things: "A surgical procedure performed by a team from Boston University, Massachusetts led by Professor Frank Guenther, has enabled a mute man to speak again. An electrode implanted in the patient's brain made it possible for the patient to produce vowels by thinking them, using a speech synthesizer. In the future, this breakthrough may help patients with similar injuries produce entire sentences, using signals from their brains."

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. I am an optimist... I hope! by duckInferno · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Losing your voice would suck.

    But having a synthesised voice on the other hand, is way cool.

    You could go around quoting robotic things like "would-you-like-to-play-a-game-[?]", or configure yourself to sound like GLADDoS or that machine thing from robo cop.

    Or Microsoft Sam.

    Of all the disabilities this would be the most "Ohhh... well.. huh. Guess that's kind of cool".
    I'm serious.

    --
    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
  2. Now what about.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    if you have a fear of public speaking? I'm not a doctor, but what happens first, the thought of what you want to say or the fear of saying it in front of people? Along the same lines, what about thoughts becoming verbalized?

    1. Re:Now what about.... by ITEric · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...what about thoughts becoming verbalized?

      I would imagine it would depend on the part of the brain being used by the device...one would hope that they tap into the part of the brain that has already decided what sounds it would like to make rather than picking up random unfiltered thoughts.

      --
      The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...
  3. Small Jump to Telepathy by psnyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's a very small jump from a working version of this to transmitting words from one brain to another, or at least an earpiece.

    Put that in a grant application.

    I'd imagine a number of places (DARPA for example) would certainly be interested in seeing how this research progressed.