{"id":89927,"date":"2019-04-24T15:42:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/synthetic-speech-generated-from-brain-recordings"},"modified":"2019-04-24T15:42:22","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:42:22","slug":"synthetic-speech-generated-from-brain-recordings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/synthetic-speech-generated-from-brain-recordings","title":{"rendered":"Synthetic speech generated from brain recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kbX9FLJ6WKw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A state-of-the-art brain-machine interface created by UC San Francisco neuroscientists can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract\u2014an anatomically detailed computer simulation including the lips, jaw, tongue, and larynx. The study was conducted in research participants with intact speech, but the technology could one day restore the voices of people who have lost the ability to speak due to paralysis and other forms of neurological damage.<\/p>\n<p>Stroke, <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/traumatic+brain+injury\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">traumatic brain injury<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/neurodegenerative+diseases\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">neurodegenerative diseases<\/a> such as Parkinson\u2019s disease, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease) often result in an irreversible loss of the ability to speak. Some people with severe speech disabilities learn to spell out their thoughts letter-by-letter using assistive devices that track very small eye or facial muscle movements. However, producing text or synthesized speech with such devices is laborious, error-prone, and painfully slow, typically permitting a maximum of 10 words per minute, compared to the 100\u2013150 words per minute of natural speech.<\/p>\n<p>The new system being developed in the laboratory of Edward Chang, MD\u2014described April 24, 2019 in <i>Nature<\/i>\u2014demonstrates that it is possible to create a synthesized version of a person\u2019s voice that can be controlled by the activity of their <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/brain\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">brain<\/a>\u2019s speech centers. In the future, this approach could not only restore fluent communication to individuals with severe speech disability, the authors say, but could also reproduce some of the musicality of the human voice that conveys the speaker\u2019s emotions and personality.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2019-04-synthetic-speech-brain.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A state-of-the-art brain-machine interface created by UC San Francisco neuroscientists can generate natural-sounding synthetic speech by using brain activity to control a virtual vocal tract\u2014an anatomically detailed computer simulation including the lips, jaw, tongue, and larynx. The study was conducted in research participants with intact speech, but the technology could one day restore the voices [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}