Jul 31, 2019 04:41 AM
Brain speech signals decoded into written text in real time for those with paralysis
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/07/415046...ch-signals
EXCERPT: UC San Francisco scientists recently showed that brain activity recorded as research participants spoke could be used to create remarkably realistic synthetic versions of that speech, suggesting hope that one day such brain recordings could be used to restore voices to people who have lost the ability to speak. However, it took the researchers weeks or months to translate brain activity into speech, a far cry from the instant results that would be needed for such a technology to be clinically useful.
Now, in a complementary new study, again working with volunteer study subjects, the scientists have for the first time decoded spoken words and phrases in real time from the brain signals that control speech, aided by a novel approach that involves identifying the context in which participants were speaking.
[...] Patients who experience facial paralysis due to brainstem stroke, spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disease, or other conditions may partially or completely lose their ability to speak. However, the brain regions that normally control the muscles of the jaw, lips, tongue, and larynx to produce speech are often intact and remain active in these patients, suggesting it could be possible to use these intentional speech signals to decode what patients are trying to say.
[...] In the new study, published July 30 in Nature Communications, researchers from the Chang lab led by postdoctoral researcher David Moses, PhD, worked with three such research volunteers to develop a way to instantly identify the volunteers’ spoken responses to a set of standard questions based solely on their brain activity, representing a first for the field. (MORE - details)
Forget props and fixed wings. New bio-inspired drones mimic birds, bats and bugs.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/for...cna1033061
EXCERPT: . . . Inspired by the aerial abilities of birds, bats and insects, researchers are crafting a new generation of ultralight drones that lack propellers and are equipped not with fixed wings but with flapping ones. One day, these tiny flying machines may be flitting unobtrusively over the landscape, collecting weather data, monitoring traffic, alerting first responders to accidents and disasters, inspecting construction sites and more. Farmers could use them to pollinate crops and law enforcement agencies could use them for search and rescue and to conduct surveillance. [...] Experts say the flying machines will be able to perform tasks without disturbing or endangering people or property.
[...] The drone is currently limited to flying in a straight line, turning and diving, but Alireza Ramezani plans to tackle more complex maneuvers, such as upside-down landings. He says Bat Bot and other drones that fly like bats, hummingbirds and bugs offer key advantages over ordinary drones — including enhanced safety and agility. “They are made out of hard materials, rigid structures, fast-rotating blades and propellers, which are not really safe to operate in proximity of human beings," Ramezani says of conventional drones like quadcopters. "And they’re kind of intrusive.”
Bio-inspired drones have soft, flexible bodies that should be harmless to people who reach out to touch them — and they can bounce off obstacles without sustaining or causing serious damage. Flapping-wing drones will also be able to maneuver through tight spaces that are off limits to larger drones of conventional design, says Xinyan Deng, a Purdue University mechanical engineer who is working on drones modeled after hummingbirds.
[...] In addition to offering tiny size and maneuverability, bio-inspired drones should be inexpensive to make, Farrell Helbling, a roboticist on the RoboBee team, says. That raises the possibility that they could be deployed in large numbers. (MORE - details, animated image)
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/07/415046...ch-signals
EXCERPT: UC San Francisco scientists recently showed that brain activity recorded as research participants spoke could be used to create remarkably realistic synthetic versions of that speech, suggesting hope that one day such brain recordings could be used to restore voices to people who have lost the ability to speak. However, it took the researchers weeks or months to translate brain activity into speech, a far cry from the instant results that would be needed for such a technology to be clinically useful.
Now, in a complementary new study, again working with volunteer study subjects, the scientists have for the first time decoded spoken words and phrases in real time from the brain signals that control speech, aided by a novel approach that involves identifying the context in which participants were speaking.
[...] Patients who experience facial paralysis due to brainstem stroke, spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative disease, or other conditions may partially or completely lose their ability to speak. However, the brain regions that normally control the muscles of the jaw, lips, tongue, and larynx to produce speech are often intact and remain active in these patients, suggesting it could be possible to use these intentional speech signals to decode what patients are trying to say.
[...] In the new study, published July 30 in Nature Communications, researchers from the Chang lab led by postdoctoral researcher David Moses, PhD, worked with three such research volunteers to develop a way to instantly identify the volunteers’ spoken responses to a set of standard questions based solely on their brain activity, representing a first for the field. (MORE - details)
Forget props and fixed wings. New bio-inspired drones mimic birds, bats and bugs.
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/for...cna1033061
EXCERPT: . . . Inspired by the aerial abilities of birds, bats and insects, researchers are crafting a new generation of ultralight drones that lack propellers and are equipped not with fixed wings but with flapping ones. One day, these tiny flying machines may be flitting unobtrusively over the landscape, collecting weather data, monitoring traffic, alerting first responders to accidents and disasters, inspecting construction sites and more. Farmers could use them to pollinate crops and law enforcement agencies could use them for search and rescue and to conduct surveillance. [...] Experts say the flying machines will be able to perform tasks without disturbing or endangering people or property.
[...] The drone is currently limited to flying in a straight line, turning and diving, but Alireza Ramezani plans to tackle more complex maneuvers, such as upside-down landings. He says Bat Bot and other drones that fly like bats, hummingbirds and bugs offer key advantages over ordinary drones — including enhanced safety and agility. “They are made out of hard materials, rigid structures, fast-rotating blades and propellers, which are not really safe to operate in proximity of human beings," Ramezani says of conventional drones like quadcopters. "And they’re kind of intrusive.”
Bio-inspired drones have soft, flexible bodies that should be harmless to people who reach out to touch them — and they can bounce off obstacles without sustaining or causing serious damage. Flapping-wing drones will also be able to maneuver through tight spaces that are off limits to larger drones of conventional design, says Xinyan Deng, a Purdue University mechanical engineer who is working on drones modeled after hummingbirds.
[...] In addition to offering tiny size and maneuverability, bio-inspired drones should be inexpensive to make, Farrell Helbling, a roboticist on the RoboBee team, says. That raises the possibility that they could be deployed in large numbers. (MORE - details, animated image)