Speech without sound
Speech without sound
- August 13, 2008
- Study headed by cognitive scientist Mike D’Zmura focused on creating a thought-based communication system; may lead to ability to “speak” without uttering a word; implications extend from healthcare to law enforcement
A team of UC Irvine scientists, armed with a recently awarded $4 million Army Research
Office grant, is working to develop a new communication system that could help patients
suffering from speech loss caused by paralysis to one day "speak" again using a brain-computer
interface for thought communication.
The award supports research into the neuroscientific and signal-processing foundations
of synthetic telepathy. The brain-computer interface would use a non-invasive brain
imaging technology like electroencephalography (EEG) to let people communicate their
thoughts to each other. For example, a person would "think" a message to be transmitted
and a computer-based thought recognition system would decode the EEG signals into
the English language, allowing the thought to be transmitted either as speech or a
text message. EEG signals are also used to determine the intended target of communication,
or who will receive the message. The entire process would take place without a single
spoken syllable.
"Such a system would require extensive training by anyone who is using it to send
messages," says Michael D'Zmura, lead researcher and chair of the UCI Department of
Cognitive Sciences. "Communication would initially be based on a limited set of words
or phrases that are recognized by the system and would involve more complex language
and speech as the technology is further developed."
If successful, the research could lead to the development of a communication system
that would have considerable benefits in medical situations and in other settings,
including battlefields, computer games, and classrooms.
"Thanks to this generous grant we can work with experts in automatic speech recognition
and in brain imaging at other universities to research a brain-computer interface
with applications in military, medical and commercial settings," says D'Zmura.
D'Zmura will conduct the research with UCI cognitive science professors Ramesh Srinivasan,
Gregory Hickok and Kourosh Saberi. Joining the team are researchers Richard Stern
and Vijayakumar Bhagavatula from Carnegie Mellon's department of electrical and computer
engineering and David Poeppel from the University of Maryland's department of linguistics.
The contract comes from the Department of Defense's Multidisciplinary University Research
Initiative (MURI) program, which supports research involving more than one science
and engineering discipline and has the goal of developing applications for military
and commercial purposes.
-Laura Rico, University Communications
Link to campus press release: http://today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1808
Also featured in the following:
OC Register, August 13, 2008
Associated Press, August 15, 2008
LA Times, August 15, 2008
Chronicle of Higher Education, August 16, 2008
Spiegel (Germany), August 16, 2008
Daily Pilot, August 17, 2008
Salt Lake Tribune, August 18, 2008
Novoe Russkoe Slovo (New York-based Russian newspaper), August 18, 2008
Engineer Online, August 19, 2008
The Fort Leavenworth Lamp, September 11, 2008
Time Magazine, September 14, 2008.
Discovery Channel, October 13, 2008
MSNBC, October 13, 2008
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