Machine to translate brain signals in words

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Actress Katie Holmes with her actor husband Tom Cruise at the premiere of The Romantics in New York on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

Coming soon: A mind-reading machine, say scientists who claim to have discovered a way of translating people’s thoughts into words. An international team, led by Prof. Bradley Greger of Utah University, has been able to translate brain signals into speech using sensors attached to the surface of the brain for the first time. The experimental breakthrough, which is up to 90 per cent accurate, offers a way to communicate for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could eventually lead to being able to read anyone thoughts, the Daily Telegraph reported.
“We were beside ourselves with excitement when it started working. It’s just one of the moments when everything came together. We have been able to decode spoken words using only signals from the brain with a device that has promise for long-term use in paralysed patients who cannot now speak. I would call it brain reading and we hope that in two or three years it will be available for use for paralysed patients,” Prof. Greger was quoted as saying.
The team achieved the experimental breakthrough when it attached two button sized grids of 16 tiny electrodes to the speech centres of the brain of an epileptic patient who had part of his skull removed for another operation to treat his condition. Using the electrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals in a computer as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralysed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less.