Brain-Computer Interface Turns Thoughts to Text – Allowing a paralyzed man to imagine writing and have the words translated to text

Brain Computer Interface

Dating from May 2021, researchers used an experimental device to tap into surgically implanted electrodes, capturing activity in the region of the brain responsible for physical movement. When the quadriplegic patient envisioned writing individual characters by hand, words flew across the screen. The text was highly accurate (95 percent) and arrived faster (90 characters per minute) than any other BCI, coming in at around the same speed performed by similarly aged people typing on their smartphones.

Led by Frank Willett, a research scientist with the Braingate research consortium, the new system doubles the speed of previous thought-to-text BCI tools, which had subjects look at a screen and mentally “point and click” — as if using a cursor — rather than simply imagining writing the letter.

See https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/brain-computer-interface-turns-thoughts-to-text

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