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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."

12 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Using your brain to talk ... by zindorsky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Using your brain to talk ... just imagine what that would mean for Slashdot! Total upheaval.

    --
    If the geiger counter does not click, the coffee, she is not thick.
    1. Re:Using your brain to talk ... by Your.Master · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or complete silence.

    2. Re:Using your brain to talk ... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      If I involuntarily said whatever I was thinking, my girlfriend would never stop slapping me.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:Using your brain to talk ... by rudeboy1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think my girlfriend would forgive me, but I'm pretty sure I'd find myself out of a job, in a dozen harrassment suits, and pepper-sprayed blind, and that's just by the end of the week.

      --
      Raging in an online forum won't do anything for the world around you. To see change, you must take action.
  2. 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.
  3. 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!
    1. Re:I am an optimist... I hope! by coolsnowmen · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is no way Stephen Hawking had to go to a surplus store to get a Centrino Pentium M, running XP, made by Intel for him repaired.

      And the software "Equalizer" was ported to XP for him.

      In short, I call BS.

  4. Oh dear by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 4, Funny

    [...] made it possible for the patient to produce vowels by thinking them

    I hope the guy isn't welsh...

  5. Do You Feel Like We Do by devotedlhasa · · Score: 5, Funny

    Easier to sing those Peter Frampton songs...

  6. 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...
  7. 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?

  8. 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.