For many, the idea of typing your thoughts may sound like a sci-fi movie, but Facebook has been supporting research on this effort over the years. And going somewhere.
This week's research department on Facebook provided updates on bold scientific ambitions. Some people think there is a possibility to extend Facebook's huge social networking tentacles in their minds. What does it mean to not sign up?
The company's plans for a non-invasive and wearable brain reading computer interface have recently made progress through research on human volunteers at the University of California, San Francisco. It eventually allows people who have lost their ability to speak words to communicate in real time through their thoughts, giving them a lease of a whole new life.
A study published on Nature on Tuesday, July 30, showed that a team of Facebook support engineers could develop a so-called "voice decoder" that would allow brain analysis to understand what a person wants to say. signal.
"People with speech loss due to paralysis are currently limited to spelling words very slowly using residual eye movements or muscle twists to control the computer interface," said Eddie Chang, a linguistic neuroscientist who is studying in the study Said. "But in many cases, the information needed to speak fluent languages still exists in the brain."
Brain-computer interface generation
To achieve the goal of creating an effective and reliable brain-computer interface, Chang's team, along with postdoctoral researcher David Moses, conducted research using electrodes implanted in three volunteer brains at the UCSF Epilepsy Center.
The experiment focused on developing a way to instantly identify spoken responses from volunteers based on brain activity alone. After much effort, the researchers reached a point where words or phrases derived from brain activity could be seen on the PC screen, as participants said.
But for now, the technology can only recognize a very limited number of words, but Moses said in a future study: "We hope to increase the flexibility and accuracy of what we can translate in brain activity."
Professor Zhang said that over the past few years his laboratory has been primarily concerned with fundamental questions about how brain circuits interpret and generate language, and said, "Language loss using these findings with advances seen in this field over the last decade Helps the patient One of the most deadly consequences of nerve damage is brain damage, spinal cord injury, degenerative disease or other conditions.
Facebook ar glasses
The technology from this study can also be integrated into AR glasses developed by Facebook. Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of AR / VR Facebook, Tweet The study released on Tuesday that it could help create non-invasive wearable devices that can be typed by imagining what people want. ”
The company explained that its face-based technology wasn't ready anytime soon, so its current status was "uncertain, slow and unreliable," but with the "important" potential, it added that it would continue to work.
Facebook is not the only high-tech company that is interested in the wacky gray matter inside our skulls. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, sought time to launch Neuralink, aimed at “preserving and improving their brain,” as well as better understanding and treating brain disorders to keep pace with artificial intelligence (AI). .
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