New Brain-Computer Interface Allows Man with ALS to 'Speak’ Again

A new brain-computer interface (BCI) developed at UC Davis Health translates brain signals into speech with up to 97% accuracy — the most accurate system of its kind. The researchers implanted sensors in the brain of a man with severely impaired speech due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Casey Harrell was able to communicate his intended speech within minutes of activating the system. A study about this work was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, affects the nerve cells that control movement throughout the body. The disease leads to a gradual loss of the ability to stand, walk and use one’s hands. It can also cause a person to lose control of the muscles used to speak, leading to a loss of understandable speech.

The new technology is being developed to restore communication for people who can’t speak due to paralysis or neurological conditions like ALS. It can interpret brain signals when the user tries to speak and turns them into text that is ‘spoken’ aloud by the computer. The voice was composed using artificial intelligence (AI) trained with existing audio samples of his pre-ALS voice.

0:00 Living with ALS
0:31 BrainGate2 study
1:04 Implanting a BCI for speech
1:51 Using the system for the first time
2:34 Decoding speech using a BCI
3:14 Using AI to reconstruct patient's voice
3:47 Returning to society
4:01 Providing hope for patients

#als #braingate #bci #lougehrigsdisease #ucdavis #ai #nejm

[eduardoc]

As someone that has ALS …I would like to say thank you for everything that you have done for our community. I have been confined to my power chair for over a year. My speech is so slurred that no one can understand me. I just hope that this technology is accessible to us. ALS is an expensive disease as it is. I will keep commenting under this comment every month to let you all know that I’m still alive and waiting for a cure.

[wrw]

My mind is blown seeing these amazing human achievements. Wow!

[manuelhansi]

Unbelievable. It's really impressive to see this results. This will give hope to a lot of people

[deanakennedy]

Wow. Absolutely incredible. Watching this makes me appreciate my life more than ever. God bless him and the most amazing people that made this happen. Truly a science fiction moment, becoming a reality.

[coreywhite]

This is amazing. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. God bless

[LindseyAllison-gw]

It would be incredible for UC Davis to include VA Healthcare patient's in their trials!

[BANDERS-seou]

Truely awesome. Thank you very much everyone working to make this available to patients

[pm]

This is an incredible success. Congrats to everyone making this happen. This is a milestone!!!

[nasimobeid]

Truly incredible technology! So proud to be an Alum in Cognitive Science from this University.

[BrianLockett]

Technopanic public: "AI will doom us all!!!!"

Realists about technology: "Here's your voice back, good sir suffering from ALS..."

[ionutbz]

Amazing what science can do for us… Thank you!

[ybrwwfu]

That's a wonderful technique.
I am Japanese and have ALS. Will these devices be available in Japanese as well? I can barely move my eyes. Do these devices require eye movements?
My hope in life is to hope for technology that is advancing day by day.

I used Google Translate. thank you.

[l-vizz]

The technology and the guys behind it are incredible. That is what technology is meant for. Helping, not killing.

[mamapat]

How do I sign up for this? I have limited to no speech recognition with my ALS. I have had ALS for three years but my speech is the only thing that ALS has taken away from me. I am very healthy otherwise.

[PD-Pro-Go]

Amazing work guys, changing lives and bettering the world is what scienc should all be about :)

[Dr_Uzair_Khan_Yousafzai]

I am very interested in this field, currently I am studying MBBS for specialization I will work in this.

[ugtmidp]

Невероятно, Гении - учёные!!!
ВОТ чем надо гордиться странам- государствам!!!

[astronhellas]

EXELLENT WORK!
WE ALL HOPE THAT SIENCE WILL TRY TO GIVE SOLUTIOS TO PEOPLE WHO SUFFERING! (IF THERE WERE A WISE ... GOD, THERE SHOULD BE NO SUCH PROBLEMS!!! )

[dotEXCEI_]

Damn, that is impressive. One of the upsides of AI technology. Keep at it lads. Greetings from Germany ✌️

[NRPls]

Вау, спасибо что я могу узнать об этом из видео в интернете. Ваша работа великолепна!