突破性的研究:大腦信號被解碼成書面文本
Doctors have been able to turn brain signals for speech into written sentences in a research project that aims to transform how patients with severe disabilities communicate.
在一項旨在改變嚴重殘疾患者交流方式的研究項目中,醫(yī)生們已經(jīng)能夠?qū)⒋竽X語言信號轉(zhuǎn)化為書面句子。
The breakthrough is reportedly the first to show how the intention to utter specific words can be extracted from brain activity and converted quickly into text.
據(jù)報道,這一突破首次表明,如何從大腦活動中提取出特定詞語的表達意圖,并將其迅速轉(zhuǎn)化為文本。
According to The Guardian, the brain-reading software only works with certain sentences that it can be trained on, although scientists believe a more powerful system could be created in the future.
據(jù)《衛(wèi)報》報道,大腦閱讀軟件只能與特定的句子一起工作,而科學家們相信未來可能會創(chuàng)造出一個更強大的系統(tǒng)。
Doctors at the University of California hoped to create a product that could enable people living with paralysis to communicate more easily than existing devices, which pick up eye movements and muscle twitches to control a virtual keyboard, the British newspaper reports.
據(jù)英國報紙報道,加利福尼亞大學的醫(yī)生們,希望研制出一種能使癱瘓患者比現(xiàn)有的設備更容易交流的產(chǎn)品,這種設備可以采集眼球運動和肌肉抽搐來控制虛擬鍵盤。
“To date, there is no speech prosthetic system that allows users to have interactions on the rapid timescale of a human conversation,” said Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon and lead researcher on the study.
該研究的首席研究員、神經(jīng)外科醫(yī)生Edward Chang說:“到目前為止,還沒有一種語音假肢系統(tǒng)可以讓使用者在人類交談的快速時間范圍內(nèi)進行互動。”
Three epilepsy patients who were about to have neurosurgery for their condition all had a tiny patch of electrodes placed directly on the brain for a week to map the origins of their seizures, the researchers state in their study.
研究人員在他們的研究中稱,三名癲癇患者即將接受神經(jīng)外科手術(shù),他們都將一小塊電極直接放置在大腦上一周,以記錄癲癇發(fā)作的起因。
While in the hospital, the patients reportedly allowed Chang to record their brain activity while each was asked nine questions and asked to read a list of 24 potential responses. Chang’s team then built computer models that matched the patterns of brain activity to the questions and the answers.
據(jù)報道,在醫(yī)院里,患者允許張記錄他們的大腦活動,同時每個人被問9個問題,并被要求閱讀24個可能的回答。Chang的團隊隨后建立了計算機模型,使大腦活動模式與問題和答案相匹配。
“This is the first time this approach has been used to identify spoken words and phrases,” David Moses, a researcher on the team, told The Guardian. “It’s important to keep in mind that we achieved this using a very limited vocabulary, but in future studies, we hope to increase the flexibility as well as the accuracy of what we can translate.”
“這是第一次用這種方法來識別口語單詞和短語,”研究小組成員大衛(wèi)·摩西告訴《衛(wèi)報》。“請注意,這次我們使用的詞匯量非常有限,但在未來的研究中,我們希望增加翻譯的靈活性和準確性。”
Their findings were published in the journal Nature and the work itself was funded by Facebook.
他們的研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上,這項研究本身是由Facebook資助的。