Whether a person could not speak to begin with or lost the ability to speak due to an injury or illness, wireless brain-sensing technology will utilize 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to give a voice to people who are unable to speak using their own voice.
previous technology - assistive context-aware toolkit (acat)
Microsoft Visual Studio (2015)
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Although technology to help people speak already exists, the process is very slow as the user must either use a hand-held clicker to choose their words or use an assistive context-aware toolkit (ACAT) program that uses face movements to act as a cursor on a keypad. The YouTube video by Microsoft Video Studio explains how Intel Labs and Microsoft worked with the late Dr. Stephen Hawking to develop the ACAT program. As of 2015, the software is offered for free at https://01.org/acat/ and is open sourced so external developers can further enhance the software.
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current technology - smartstones Touch
Smartstones Touch allows for nonverbal communication through touch and the power of IoT. Using Bluetooth enabled devices, Smartstones Touch helps users send messages from their stone to a recipient stone through motions such as tapping, shaking, or swiping. The recipient stone will illuminate and vibrate in a pattern that can notify the recipient of the sender's feelings, location, or basic need or request. Users need to learn the patterns from the guide but once learned, the patterns are simple to differentiate and recognize.
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Patient Innovation (2015)
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developing/future technology - eeg (brain-sensing) headsets
Futurism (2016)
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By using brain-sensing and AI to predict what the user wants to say, the process of communication should speed up significantly. This will be especially helpful for young students who are not able to normally vocalize their needs or triggers and allow for more efficient communication between the student and their teacher or education assistant. Smartstones is working with Emotiv to develop and pair their :prose app with an EEG headset that will accomplish this feat. The app uses thought and facial gestures to allow the user to perform commands and speak. Its first phase was looking for autistic users to test their device.
With the increase in prominence of IoT and in connection speeds through 5G, the capabilities of wireless brain-sensing headsets will enable users to communicate seamlessly by just using their minds with no touch or facial movements required. Currently, the brain messages are still sent to a screen for recipients to read or play aloud from an external device but hopefully in the near future, the messages will be heard by the recipients immediately and directly from the headset without an intermediary device. |