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Thought To Text
Some amazing news buried in the sea of virus-related news, UCSF researchers were able to decode text from thought. Currently, this can only take place in the lab with a limited vocabulary, but the genie is now out of the bottle.
After spending several years on the road visiting dozens of research labs across Canada and the US, I’ve seen a pattern of these discoveries. They spend several years as research projects, they eventually get spun off into startups, the startups get licensed or picked up by a larger medical device company, and the technology gets matured and brought to production.
Right now, this technology requires an experimental implant. It could eventually see its way into heavily regulated medical devices where it will help first those who have had strokes, injuries, or muscular degeneration that has impaired their abilities to speak. Then, it might see it’s way into people with fewer medical issues.
And what about an implant that enables hearing? Wait — there already are those. This device could broadcast your thoughts to those with such an implant. What if you could have entire conversations without speaking?The door is already open.
