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On average, English speakers in the U.S. converse at about 150
words per minute, according to the National Center for Voice
and Speech. Some brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are working
to catch up to that, with one such device setting a new record
of 62 words per minute.
A team from Stanford University developed a brain chip capable of
translating thoughts to speech at a rate 3.4 times faster
than the previous record, making it well on its way to one day reaching
the speed of natural conversation. “These results show a feasible path
forward for using intracortical speech BCIs to restore rapid
communication to people with paralysis who can no longer speak,” the
researchers wrote in a paper
published last week.
The team tested their device by analyzing facial movements of a patient
with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gherig’s disease, trying
to form words with their mouth and then deciphering the related neural
activity into messages. The non-verbal subject was able
to produce more than a word a second with a pre-programmed vocabulary of
125,000 words.
Though there’s more work to be done, the research — which took second place at the Annual
BCI Awards last year — offers hope that alternative
communication methods will only continue to improve for people with
paralysis or neurodegenerative diseases like ALS.
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