[UACCESS-L] Device Turns Body's Electrical Signals Into Speech.

[Gregg Vanderheiden <gv@trace.wisc.edu>]

Device Turns Body's Electrical Signals Into Speech.

Popular Science (5/20, Katayama) reports on the Audeo, "a voice synthesizer that gives back the ability to speak to those with vocal cord or neurological damage." The device uses "three pill-size electrodes on the throat" that "pick up electrical signals generated between the brain and the vocal cords. A processor in the device then filters and amplifies the signals and sends them to an adjacent PC, where software decodes them and turns them into words spoken through the PC's speakers." Currently, the device "allows people to use all English-language phonemes...so there's no limit on what a user can say." And while it "can pick up a maximum of 30 words per minute" it can also "do neat things like enable people to carry on phone conversations without making a sound." Its inventors are "working on a cellphone interface, with the goal of scrapping the computer completely and reducing the price."

Gregg

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Gregg Vanderheiden Ph.D.

Director Trace R&D Center

Professor Industrial & Systems Engineering

and Biomedical Engineering

University of Wisconsin-Madison