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University of Columbia Researchers Translate Brain Signals Directly Into Speech (columbia.edu)
dryriver writes: There is good news for people who have limited or no ability to speak, due to having suffered a stroke for example. Researchers at Columbia University have managed to turn brain signals in the auditory cortex of test subjects into somewhat intelligible speech using a vocoder-like system with audio output cleaned up by neural networks. The findings have been published in the journal Nature. Here's an excerpt from the Zuckerman Institute's press release, which contains example audio of a number sequence being turned into robotic speech: "In a scientific first, Columbia neuroengineers have created a system that translates thought into intelligible, recognizable speech. By monitoring someone's brain activity, the technology can reconstruct the words a person hears with unprecedented clarity. This breakthrough, which harnesses the power of speech synthesizers and artificial intelligence, could lead to new ways for computers to communicate directly with the brain. It also lays the groundwork for helping people who cannot speak, such as those living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or recovering from stroke, regain their ability to communicate with the outside world."
Seriously though, this is amazing.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
"Yes, I'd like to order a Big Mac BOOBS! Good Lord look at those boobs! Ummm, some fries and a My God those boobies are huge! Umm and diet coke. Damn, those of tig ass bitties!"
That's what every guy's brain is thinking.
Now they just have to figure out how Trump manages to generate speech while demonstrating no measurable brain activity.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Please note that while it seems like they cracked translating thought into speed, it is really about something very different. They decode what person is hearing into sound. This is very, very far from being able to interpret actual thoughts - they attach themselves to very early stage of hearing process, where things are still looking very much like sound waves. Additionally, it is tested on just 10 words (numbers from 0 to 9). On top of that, given neural nets are magic, I wouldn't be surprised if instead on brain activity, they focused on some measurement artifact, which is caused by skull vibrating to the sound, turning all that setup into overcomplicated and underperforming microphone. Sure, it is a worthy research, but it is light years away from thoughts to speech conversion.
Have they tried using this on a dog yet?
from TFA;
“In this scenario, if the wearer thinks ‘I need a glass of water,’ our system could take the brain signals generated by that thought, and turn them into synthesized, verbal speech,” said Dr. Mesgarani.
it clearly says it will vocalize what the brain is thinking. unless there is an easy way to turn that off/on i don't think anybody actually wants something like that.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
It would be creepy as hell, but very cool, to get a recording of the voices schizophrenics hear.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
We hooked it up to Ariana Grande and it just keeps printing out "Need attention" over and over.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What if you have Tourettes syndrome
Fun fact: profanity comes from a different part of the brain from normal speech. That's why Tourettes can even exist. That part of the brain is, as much as we can reason between species, the part of the brain that other apes and monkeys use for warning vocalizations. Literally "oh shit it's a snake!"
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.