An Intracortical Brain-computer Interface For Restoring Speech
With Sergey Stavisky
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) offer a potential treatment for speech-motor paralysis. Devices restore communication are one of the fastest-advanced areas of neurotechnology: five years ago, the state-of-the-art was brain control of a computer cursor to point-and-click type letter by letter, and now we’ve demonstrated a BCI that decodes the attempted speech of a man with ALS into words with 98% accuracy. First I’ll explain how we achieved this “brain-to-text” capability. Then I’ll show our progress towards a more expressive instantaneous “brain-to-voice” BCI. Finally, I’ll introduce an initial foray into higher-order cognitive decoding.