Yesterday 06:03 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1127026
INTRO: Scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute have the first direct evidence from human studies that brain-controlled hearing technology can help people single out a voice in a crowd. These early findings suggest that researchers may one day develop a hearing augmentation device that can, among other feats, overcome the problems that conventional hearing aids have with noisy surroundings.
Their research was published online today in Nature Neuroscience.
“We have developed a system that acts as a neural extension of the user, leveraging the brain’s natural ability to filter through all the sounds in a complex environment to dynamically isolate the specific conversation they wish to hear,” said senior author Nima Mesgarani, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and an associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“This science empowers us to think beyond traditional hearing aids, which simply amplify sound, toward a future where technology can restore the sophisticated, selective hearing of the human brain," Dr. Mesgarani added... (MORE - no ads)
INTRO: Scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute have the first direct evidence from human studies that brain-controlled hearing technology can help people single out a voice in a crowd. These early findings suggest that researchers may one day develop a hearing augmentation device that can, among other feats, overcome the problems that conventional hearing aids have with noisy surroundings.
Their research was published online today in Nature Neuroscience.
“We have developed a system that acts as a neural extension of the user, leveraging the brain’s natural ability to filter through all the sounds in a complex environment to dynamically isolate the specific conversation they wish to hear,” said senior author Nima Mesgarani, PhD, a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and an associate professor of electrical engineering at Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“This science empowers us to think beyond traditional hearing aids, which simply amplify sound, toward a future where technology can restore the sophisticated, selective hearing of the human brain," Dr. Mesgarani added... (MORE - no ads)