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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."

3 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Keep going by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Eventually you might get to a direct brain-computer interface that healthy people (like me) will want to get installed.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  2. Interesting by d3l33t · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it possible this technology could be applied in reverse? Using electrode implants to imprint the sound of a vowel in a persons mind?

  3. Re:Small Jump to Telepathy by icegreentea · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or you can make it even more insane and transmit not just to an earpiece but to a cochlear implants. And not just any cochlear implants, but one of those newer experimental ones which are totally internal. No external pieces at all. Upon a casual examination, it really would seem like telepathy.

    On another note, does anyone know if the speech production areas of the brain overlap with those with sub vocalization, or mouthing words? Just curious.