A new device and innovative ML-based software approach achieved very high accuracy, restoring speech to a man with ALS.
Researchers at UC Davis, working in collaboration with the BrainGate consortium, have unveiled a breakthrough brain-computer interface (BCI) that restores speech for people who have lost the ability to speak. The system was successfully tested with a man living with advanced ALS, marking the most accurate and fastest-performing speech neuroprosthesis to date.
The device works by translating brain activity into text and synthetic speech. In this case, the participant, 45-year-old Casey Harrell, had four microelectrode arrays implanted into the speech region of his brain. Just 25 days after surgery during the very first trial, the device achieved 99.6% accuracy with a limited 50-word vocabulary, requiring only 30 minutes of calibration data while Harrell attempted to speak.
