Gizmodo: audÃ©o

Audeo Captures Electrical Signals From The Brain To Create Sound

Rosa Golijan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:40:00 EST

Your lungs deliver air, vocal cords vibrate, mouth moves, and...nothing. One of those processes failed and you're left voiceless, speaking impaired. Enter Audeo which captures electrical signals intended for the vocal cords and interprets them to produce sound.

Michael Callahan invented this incredible tool after a traumatic accident left him wondering how difficult life is for those who lose an ability most of us take for granted. His invention is actually a system of devices enabling audible speech:

Three pill-size electrodes on the throat pick up electrical signals generated between the brain and the vocal cords. A processor in the device then filters and amplifies the signals and sends them to an adjacent PC, where software decodes them and turns them into words spoken through the PC's speakers. By placing the electrodes on the neck and "speaking" silently through vocal-cord movements (but without moving the mouth), the wearer generates enough neural activity to trigger this chain of events.

Audeo is capable of more than just giving a voice to those physically impaired though. It could be used to speak on the phone without ever actually vocalizing anything, opening up the possibilities to fantastical spy or military applications. That and it could one day get rid of that is-he-talking-to-me-or-someone-on-the-phone confusion around people wearing BlueTooth headsets. [Pop Sci]

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It's about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature's ultimate machine.

Audeo Neckband Translates Your Thoughts into Speech, Voicelessly

Kit Eaton — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:50:31 EDT

The science-fiction sounding Audeo can apparently detect nerve impulses your brain sends to your vocal cords, and then translate them into meaningful electronic speech without a sound escaping from your mouth. While secret agents everywhere are presumably rejoicing at the idea, it's actually intended to help people whose disabilities mean they can't speak. Don't believe it? The designers recently demonstrated it by making a cellphone call at a Texas Instruments conference, and recorded it on video.

For the brain to send the right nerve impulses, it apparently requires the user to think about speaking in a particular way—one designer calls it "a level above thinking." Despite the learning curve this causes, requiring users to go through lots of training, it brings another benefit: you can intersperse talking normally with voiceless speech.

The company has been working on the technology for a while, starting by using it to control an electric wheelchair. For the time being, though, the speech system is a technology in its infancy. The processing delay is evident from the video, and it has a limited vocabulary of only 150 words and phrases. By the end of 2008, the company is hoping to release a new version that recognizes the phonemes that comprise normal words, effectively giving it an unlimited vocabulary. [New Scientist]

Thought-Controlled Wheel Chair Helps the Disabled

ybaranovsky — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:56:45 EDT

A wheel chair being developed by Ambient will allow users to control its movement with just their thoughts — a breakthrough device that could be a huge help for the paralyzed. Called the Audeo, the chair works by intercepting brain signals sent to your larynx and decoding them to match previously recorded words, such as "forward," "back," or "fire laser."

Luckily, there is no complex cyborg-like surgery involved, as the device works by using a sensor-covered neckband to detect the brain signals and wirelessly transmit them to a nearby computer for processing. Theoretically, the signals can also be sent to a speech synthesizer, allowing a paralyzed user to speak with all the intensity and creepiness of Stephen Hawking. Pretty amazing in its simplicity, I'm curious to see how accurate this thing is and that it won't be sending our handicapped flying backwards into traffic. [Ambient via SciFi]

Phonak Audéo Personal Communication Assistant, Used to be Called a Hearing Aid

Charlie White — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:45:00 EDT

Since we last told you about Phonak hearing aids a year and a half ago, the Swiss company's made strides to further advance the devices' compact form factor and high-fidelity sound. The new Audéo Personal Communication Assistant (PCA) is available in two different styles and 15 color combinations. It's discreetly tucked behind the ear and plugged into the ear canal with a transparent material that's nearly invisible.

This Audéo model is even suitable for severe hearing loss, using a dual microphone design that can separate background noise from speech. Phonak also makes a variety of smaller hearing aids suitable for mild or moderate hearing loss, and some of those babies are so tiny they fit all the way inside the ear canal and out of sight. Pricing for these high-style hearing instruments runs from $1500-$3500 each. [Audéo World, via Coolest Gadgets]