Turning Thoughts into Words
From: Technology Review - 09/23/2010
By: Duncan Graham-Rowe 

University of Utah researchers are developing a brain-computer interface that
provides a way to communicate for people who are unable to talk or move but
are awake and aware. The Utah researchers recently demonstrated a method for
determining which of 10 distinct words a person is thinking by recording the
electrical activity from the surface of the brain. The technique involves
creating algorithms that can recognize specific brain signals picked up by an
array of electrodes placed over the language centers of the brain, an
approach known as electrocorticography, says Utah's Spencer Kellis. However,
the technique currently can only produce results with about 48 percent
accuracy, a rate that Kellis says must be improved. "I don't think even 60
percent or 70 percent accuracy is going to work for patients who cannot
communicate in any other way and where there is no other margin for
verification," he says. 

The group was able to identify the words "yes," "no," "hot, "cold,"
"thirsty," "hungry," "hello," "goodbye," "more," and "less" with an accuracy
of 48 percent. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/26332/?a=f

Links:
Spencer Kellis
http://www.ece.utah.edu/~skellis/
http://blog.spencerkellis.net/2009/06/

Electrocorticography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocorticography

PMT Neurosurgical
http://www.pmtcorp.com/

Related:
Less-Invasive Brain Interfaces
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21699/

Tiny Electrodes for the Brain
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/16755/