New AI-enabled system translates brain signals into speech

In a first, scientists have created an artificial intelligence (AI) based system that directly translates thoughts into intelligible, recognisable speech, an advance that may help people who cannot speak regain their ability to communicate with the outside world.

By monitoring someone's brain activity, the technology developed by researchers can reconstruct the words a person hears with unprecedented clarity. 
 
The breakthrough, which harnesses the power of speech synthesisers and artificial intelligence, could lead to new ways for computers to communicate directly with the brain. 


It also lays the groundwork for helping people who cannot speak, such as those living with as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or recovering from stroke, regain their ability to communicate with the outside world, researchers said.

"Our voices help connect us to our friends, family and the world around us, which is why losing the power of one's voice due to injury or disease is so devastating," said a researcher.


"With today's study, we have a potential way to restore that power. We've shown that, with the right technology, these people's thoughts could be decoded and understood by any listener," said  a principal investigator of the study.

Decades of research has shown that when people speak-or even imagine speaking-telltale patterns of activity appear in their brain. 

Distinct pattern of signals also emerge when we listen to someone speak, or imagine listening.
Experts, trying to record and decode these patterns, see a future in which thoughts need not remain hidden inside the brain-but instead could be translated into verbal speech at will.

However, accomplishing this feat has proven challenging. Early efforts to decode brain signals by researchers focused on simple computer models that analysed spectrograms, which are visual representations of sound frequencies.

However, because this approach has failed to produce anything resembling intelligible speech, the team turned instead to a vocoder, a computer algorithm that can synthesise speech after being trained on recordings of people talking.

"This is the same technology used by Amazon Echo and Apple Siri to give verbal responses to our questions," she said.

Researchers plan to test more complicated words and sentences next, and they want to run the same tests on brain signals emitted when a person speaks or imagines speaking. 

Ultimately, they hope their system could be part of an implant, similar to those worn by some epilepsy patients, that translates the wearer's thoughts directly into words. 

"In this scenario, if the wearer thinks 'I need a glass of water,' our system could take the brain signals generated by that thought, and turn them into synthesised, verbal speech," she said.

"This would be a game changer. It would give anyone who has lost their ability to speak, whether through injury or disease, the renewed chance to connect to the world around them," he said. 

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Advanced computer imaging tech tapped to reconstruct bladder

Researchers have used images from cameras attached to long, flexible instruments called endoscopes and then advanced computer imaging technology to create a three-dimensional computer reconstruction of a patient's bladder.

With this fusion of medicine and engineering, doctors could develop organ maps, better prepare for operations and detect early cancer recurrences. 

With endoscopes but without the computer imaging technology, the way doctors examine the bladder for tumors or stones is like exploring the contours of a cave with a flashlight, as they find it sometimes difficult to orient the location of masses within the bladder's blood vessel-lined walls.
However, bladder cancer has among the highest recurrence rates of any cancer. From 50 percent to 70 percent of tumors return after removal, according to an associate professor of urology and co-senior author on a paper published.

Being able to see each patient's bladder as a three-dimensional model could improve surgical planning and monitor cancer recurrence.

"The beauty of this project is that we can take data that doctors are already collecting," assistant professor  and co-senior author on the paper, was quoted as saying in a news release.

Endoscopy of the bladder, called cystoscopy, is an integral part of cancer management, according to the Prof.. One of the technique's advantages is that doctors don't have to buy new hardware or modify their techniques significantly. Through the use of advanced computer vision algorithms, the team reconstructed the shape and internal appearance of a bladder using the video footage from a routine cystoscopy, which would ordinarily have been discarded or not recorded in the first place.

To test the accuracy of their reconstruction, the team created a model based on endoscopy images taken in a 3D-printed bladder, known as a tissue phantom. Because the details of the tissue phantom are known, the researchers compared their rendering to the real thing and found they matched with few errors.

"Sometimes you don't have a sense - where was I in the bladder?" the Prof. said. Seeing a three-dimensional rendering of an organ before operating, like having a map before embarking on a trip, could make the procedure easier for doctors. Other potential applications include using the 3D reconstruction as a visual medical record.

Although the team developed the technique for the bladder, it could be applied to other hollow organs where doctors routinely perform endoscopy, including the stomach or colon. "We were the first group to achieve complete 3D bladder models using standard clinical equipment, which makes this research ripe for rapid translation to clinical practice," said  lead author of the paper.

This technique is the first of its kind and still has room for improvement, the researchers said. Primarily, the three-dimensional models tend to flatten out bumps on the bladder wall, including tumors. With the model alone, this may make tumors harder to spot. The team is now working to advance the realism, in shape and detail, of the models.

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Indian doctors successfully cure 'rare' cancer

The oncology team of Artemis hospital has successfully cured a patient suffering from a rare type of cancer called Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of Trachea.

An exceptional and 'one of its kind' surgery was successfully performed at Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon by a team of doctors, which comprised of Surgical Oncologists, Otolaryngologist and Anesthesiologists, who naturally reconstructed the 33-year-old patient, Hamid Taha's windpipe.

For the past 2 years Taha could not speak or eat properly, or even, breathe through his nose due to cancer in the windpipe, but the doctors eliminated the tumour by clipping 7.8 cm of his windpipe and later reconstructed it naturally with the help of muscle flaps and pericardium.

Discussing the procedures involved, Dr. Mandeep Singh, Head - Surgical Oncology, said, "This is a first time incident in India, wherein, such a large length of the cancerous wind pipe was cut off and reconstruction was intricate because the usual method of joining the two parts of windpipe was not an option".

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