Newly developed wearable artificial graphene throat (WAGT) can help mute people to speak, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal ACS Nano.
Most people take speech for granted, but it's actually a complex process that involves both motions of the mouth and vibrations of folded tissues, called vocal cords, within the throat. If the vocal cords sustain injuries or other lesions, a person can lose the ability to speak. Now, researchers have developed a wearable artificial throat that, when attached to the neck like a temporary tattoo, can transform throat movements into sounds.
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‘Artificial throat could one day help mute people speak. Scientists developed a new wearable artificial graphene throat (WAGT) that can transform human throat movements into different sounds with the training of the wearer.’
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Scientists have developed detectors that measure movements on human skin, such as a pulse or heartbeat. However, the devices typically can't convert these motions into sounds. Recently, He Tian, Yi Yang, Tian-Ling Ren, and colleagues developed a prototype artificial throat with both capabilities, but because the device needed to be taped to the skin, it wasn't comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time. So the researchers wanted to develop a thinner, skin-like artificial throat that would adhere to the neck like a temporary tattoo.
To make their artificial throat, the researchers laser-scribed graphene on a thin sheet of polyvinyl alcohol film. The flexible device measured 0.6 by 1.2 inches, or about double the size of a person's thumbnail.
![Translating Brain Signals into Speech Sounds May Help People Who Can]( "Translating Brain Signals into Speech Sounds May Help People Who Can")
Turning brain signals into speech sounds may help paralyzed patients who can't speak, reveals a new study.
The research team used water to attach the film to the skin over a volunteer's throat and connected it with electrodes to a small armband that contained a circuit board, microcomputer, power amplifier, and decoder. When the volunteer noiselessly imitated the throat motions of speech, the instrument converted these movements into emitted sounds, such as the words "OK" and "No." The researchers say that, in the future, mute people could be trained to generate signals with their throats that the device would translate into speech.
Source: Eurekalert
Translating Brain Signals into Speech Sounds May Help People Who Can't Speak
Turning brain signals into speech sounds may help paralyzed patients who can't speak, reveals a new study.
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The research team used water to attach the film to the skin over a volunteer's throat and connected it with electrodes to a small armband that contained a circuit board, microcomputer, power amplifier, and decoder. When the volunteer noiselessly imitated the throat motions of speech, the instrument converted these movements into emitted sounds, such as the words "OK" and "No." The researchers say that, in the future, mute people could be trained to generate signals with their throats that the device would translate into speech.
Source: Eurekalert
New System That Translates Brain Signals Directly into Speech Created
The breakthrough technology which harnesses the power of speech synthesizers and artificial intelligence, could lead to new ways for computers to communicate directly with the brain.
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 Apraxia: New Developments Into The Speech Disorder FoundNew insights into a severe child speech impediment called apraxia has been found. | Advertisement
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