We speak at a rate of roughly 160 words every minute. That speed is incredibly difficult to achieve for speech brain implants.
Decades in the making, speech implants use tiny electrode arrays inserted into the brain to measure neural activity, with the goal of transforming thoughts into text or sound. They’re invaluable for people who lose their ability to speak due to paralysis, disease, or other injuries. But they’re also incredibly slow, slashing word count per minute nearly ten-fold. Like a slow-loading web page or audio file, the delay can get frustrating for everyday conversations.
A team led by Drs. Krishna Shenoy and Jaimie Henderson at Stanford University is closing that speed gap.
